Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2021 12:43 pm
ALPHABET HOOP - THOUGHTS ON MYTANAR BASKETBALL
by Almedina Radovanovic
IMPROVEMENTS ON THE OFFENSIVE END RESULT IN FIRST WIN
An Evgeny Fomin triple-double (11 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists) was demonstrative of a much improved Mytanar team in this 74-68 victory away at Baker Park. Fomin had been ineffective in the group's opening two games against Banija and Græntfjall, locked down by fellow bigs from superior basketball nations. Here he was involved in everything good about Mytanija's play at both ends, rebounding aggressively and utilising his soft hands well to play a duo of inventive passes through Baker Park centre Joe Foster's legs in the second quarter. Zelimir Ateljevic was unsurprisingly the man on the end of both of those assists and he scored a team best 21 points - his highest of the tournament - to lead the team towards what had been an elusive win up until this point. The improvement on the defensive end was heartening, although nobody should get too far ahead of themselves as a circumspect Mirko Lazetic: "We found it tough at times out there and we have to remember - with no disrespect intended - that Baker Park are closer to our level than the likes of Banija and Græntfjall. It was a hard-fought game and these are the sort of games we have to learn a lot more from than those against the group's better teams."
Lazetic's words are positive, he's right in saying that games against a similar level of opposition are the ones that this set of players have to learn a lot from. Playing against teams that are the standard of Banija and Græntfjall and receiving a beating may be disappointing but it isn't unexpected. Baker Park are a team that are at a similar stage to us in their development, also unranked and just looking to find their way - as are we - at international level. They gave us some problems too at times, each time we stretched out a ten to twelve point lead they would close it again. Once Mytanija got into the third quarter that lead never came below the six points that the game finished with. Lazetic was pleased with this: "I thought we showed a good level of grit and determination to ensure that our lead didn't evaporate. Everybody was much improved and played with a bit of dog in them on the defensive end. I'd like to give Albin [Jausovec] special praise as he had a particularly tough game against Græntfjall and he was close to perfect out there today."
He's not wrong either, compared to the five turnovers Jausovec coughed up against Græntfjall his one today was paltry. He seemed to be playing with a bit more confidence today and it didn't seem as if his poor performance had unduly affected him. Stepan Bychkov was once again quiet and Lazetic may see fit to start either of the two 20 year old power forwards at his disposal for a bit of a change against either Maccian or HUElavia. Mario Djokanovic and Tose Lekov have looked passable in short spells, Lekov throwing down a couple of especially impressive dunks against Baker Park, but they are a lot more inexperienced than Bychkov (even though he's only 25). It will give Lazetic a decision to make, if he perseveres with Bychkov he may be leaving the team short given Bychkov's performances so far. Kostojcinovski (15 points, 3/3 shooting from behind the arc) was good from the field too and that will help Mytanija space the floor better in the games to come.