The Dubai Basketball team suffered a defeat in Serbia on Sunday evening, ending its winning streak at four games, after losing to Partizan Mozart, the leaders of the European Adriatic Basketball Association (ABA), with a score of 61-82.
The team entered the heavyweight confrontation looking to upset Partizan with its first loss this season. However, the hosts, encouraged by their enthusiastic fans, rose to the occasion, increasing their perfect record to 8-0, led by star Carlik Jones, who previously played for the Chicago Bulls, Denver Nuggets and Dallas. Mavericks scored 17 points.
The Dubai Basketball team started the competition strong, with a three-point lead during the first quarter of play, but that was not enough, as the home team gathered its defensive strength in the second quarter, while the Dubai team scored only eight points.
Despite being the weaker team, the Dubai team tried hard, and fought their way to reduce the gap to six points four minutes before the end of the match, but failed to achieve victory.
This is the second loss for the Dubai team this season, leaving them only two points behind Partizan, with the expected rematch to be held later.
Former Partizan player, Danilo Andšić, scored the highest number of points for the Dubai Basketball team, with 13 points, while Udo Abbas and captain Klemen Pribilic recorded eight rebounds and three assists, respectively.
Dubai Basketball team coach, Jurika Golemache, said that his players were not at the top of their level, and were unable to benefit from a comeback late in the fourth quarter when the score was 63-57: “The whole match was tense on our part. We opened the match embarrassingly.” “Very much, with a lot of loose balls without a lot of pressure.”
He added: “Our organization was poor during the match, and we were unable to put the ball where we wanted, and defensively it was not too bad with the defensive changes in the first half. The plan was to get closer to the result, especially since there were four minutes remaining, but we did not continue.”
In the first quarter, Partizan quickly took a 7-0 lead, but the Dubai team came back to score a 14-14 draw thanks to a free throw from Nate Mason before ending up with a 19-16 lead at the final whistle. As for the second quarter, it ended with Partizan leading by 35. -27, so the Dubai Basketball team continued its delay, reaching the final quarter trailing 54-44.
Another former Partizan player, Nemanja Dangubic, contributed to the visitors’ hopes with a shot from outside the line, making the score 63-57, but the home team maintained its performance and superiority in the match to finally secure victory.
After three away matches, the Dubai Basketball Team returns to the Coca-Cola Arena to face the Slovenian team KRKA, in the ninth round match of the ABA League on November 17 at 7 pm.
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