Brno, Feb. 13 (BD) — egoé Basket Brno looks to build on Group A1 success against visiting BK Armex Děčín tonight at 8, KP Brno uses Battle of Brno win as a springboard to more success and the Brno sports schedule.
Pregame from Brno Daily
At the end of the first quarter against visiting Pardubice last Wednesday, Brno head coach Christianos Chougkaz decided to mix things up.
The offense hadn’t started well, the American players would be able to rest for later in the game and the young players would, hopefully, be able to get some experience against a top team. Just holding the line would be enough.
Instead, the less-experienced players — Lukas Stegbauer (23 years old), Jan Kozina (23), Viktor Vasat (21), Zdenek Nehyba (23) and Radek Farsky (19) — built a lead. Chougkaz left the second team out on the floor to start the second quarter and got several more quality minutes and, with four minutes left in the first half, a nine-point lead.
It may have been a small detail, but it imbued the team with a level of confidence that carried it through moments of adversity and, eventually, to victory in the first game of Group A1. egoé Basket Brno beat BK JIP Pardubice, 81-80.
Brno (9-14) plays its second Group A1 game tonight with BK Armex Děčín (14-9) at Campus Square at 8 p.m. Then there is a long break before the third game of Group A1 when Brno welcomes Sluneta Ústí nad Labem (14-9) to play on March 2.
Another (perhaps not so) small detail in Basket Brno’s win over Pardubice was the increased emphasis on defense. Pardubice had a final shot, but it was well defended by a fast-closing trio of Gieger, Stegbauer and Keely.
A huge part of the victory was the outside shooting of Deremy Geiger, who was 7 of 12 from 3-point range and led the game with 30 points, possibly because he had extra spring in his legs.
Jakub Jokl was a force under the basket; he scored a season-high 12 points in just over 20 minutes of game time. Nehyba had 11 points.
Brno earned its berth in Group A1 when it beat Kingspan Královští sokoli, 89-77, on the final day of the regular season. It is the first time that Brno men’s basketball team has been in the advanced group since it entered the league six years ago.
Group A1 guarantees that Brno will stay in the Kooperativa NBL next season.
During the first 22 games, Brno had won only three games against the teams it would face in Group A1. Brno had lost to Pardubice twice.