KB Sigal Prishtina won its third game in a row in group D of SIGAL-UNIQA Balkan League. The champions hosted their Kosovo rival KB Peja and took 85-84 victory after an intense game from start to finish. The hosts led throughout but missed several chances to close it out. At the end Peja also had a chance to win but the visitors missed it.After that result Sigal is first in the group with 3-0 record while Peja, Levski 2014 and Kozuv all have 1-2. Next week Peja will visit Levski in Sofia while Sigal will host Kozuv.
The teams exchanged baskets early before Sigal made a 10-0 run to go up by 7 points. In the first quarter the hosts were on a roll and the lead went to 11 points before being cut to 9 after ten minutes.Peja started well the second period closing the gap to just 3 but Sigal responded quickly and once again increased their advantage to double digits.They led by around 7-8 points almost until the end of the first half but it finished with 4-0 run for Peja which cut their deficit to only 3 points. The big battle continued after the break with both teams exchanging baskets.The visitors had three attempts in their final attack but couldn′t make a basket and eventually lost.
Mohamed Abukar was the top scorer for the winners with 22 points as he also added 6 rebounds and 6 assists. Dardan Berisha had double double with 21 points and 11 rebounds as Jason Washburn added 14 points.
Alban Veseli was the top performer for the visitors with 22 points and 7 rebounds. Nenad Delic had 21 and 7 while Drilon Hajrizi added 20 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists.
Antonis Constantinides, head coach of Sigal Prishtina: “The only good thing from this game is the victory. We won only by one point, but it’s important that we won. However, I am very disappointed by the game of both teams, but since I am Prishtina’s coach I will talk only about my club. There were a lot of ups and downs in my team, they didn’t play smart offense. We shouldn’t repeat this kind of game, because this is not our game. I will talk to my players and tell them that I am not pleased and together we will try to improve our mistakes. I wish that Peja will find a way to go through to the semifinals. Our goal is to defend our titles, in BIBL and also in Kosovo league, but with a game like the one against Peja we can never achieve our goal. We still have a lot of work to do, we are halfway and now we have to get better in every game and not play like we did with Peja.”
Edmond Azemi, captain of Sigal Prishtina: “We allowed Peja to score 84 points and that shows that we didn’t play well. I believe that after this match we’ll have to reflect and not let this bad performance repeat.”
Sigal Prishtina-Peja 85:84 (27:18, 14:20, 24:19, 20:27)
Youth and Sports Center, Prishtina.
Spectators: 2000
Referees: A. Zurapoviq, A. Milojeviq, O. Jokiq.
Sigal Prishtina: Washburn 14, Kemp 11, Berisha 21, Marinov 5, Abukar 22, Azemi, Peci, Jakupi, Warren 12, Mazreku, Sinani.
Peja: Veseli 22, Deliç 21, Hajrizi 20, Davis 11, Burwell 5, Covington 5, West, Mekaj, Grapci, Hajdari, B. Zekiqi, S. Zekiqi.
Group D
Sigal Prishtina-Peja 85:84
Kozuv-Levski 99:72
Table
1. Sigal Prishtina 3 6
2. Kozuv 3 4
3. Levski 3 4
4. Peja 3 4