Clash of vice-champions from Croatia and Slovenia ends with a draw
Match between Croatian and Slovenian vice-champions was quite interesting and dramatic. In the end 24:24 (12:13) with whole lot of technical mistakes on both side. However, final results clearly pictures what the situation was in King Tomislav sports hall throughout the full course of the match.
Guests opened the match better, opening the gap to 2 led by great performances from Pajovic and Medved forcing coach Horvat to call a timeout after which Nexe started cutting the lead all the way until Buvinic scored one for 12:13 which is exactly what scoreboard was saying after first 30. Klemen Ferlin was probably the most important factor for Gorenje in that period as he already had 9 saves.
Nexe have however managed to turn the result over in the beginning of the second on wings of a great 4:0 series. Despite of that, teams entered final 10 minutes leveled and it all came down to final two attacks. First Slovenians missed to score giving Patrik Leban a chance to bring his team a joy of victory which, unfortunately for their fans, he did not manage to do and the match finished with 24:24.
Sasa Barisic-Jaman led scorers in this one with 7 while on the other side Nejc Cehte and Zarko Pejovic scored 4 each. Klemen Ferlin finished the match with 14 saves while on the other side Pilipovic and Lelic, who was forced to leave the court with 10 minutes left to play after an unwary start of Matic Verdenik, combined for 9.