A great dissapointment in the final of the Adriatic League in Ljubljana with the loss 88-91 to KK Zadar.
Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv, that led the League throughout, was finally beaten by a team who made the Final Four in the last minute but presented the best player in 20 years old Marko Popovic.
Maccabi opened with Yotam Halperin on Popovic and he kept him scoreless until the 14th minutes. Maccabi led 20-16 but Zadar ended the first quarter The Croats led 21-20. They increased their lead to 40-34 and at the half Maccabi was 40-43 down.
The third quarter was Maccabi’s best when they took a 59-54 lead and started the final period 64-62 up. But in the final quarter Zadar went into a crazy run. From 68-68 they got to 84-72 with 2 minutes & 35 seconds to go. All court pressure enabled Maccabi to come back to 89-88 mainly through Udrih & Halperin. Popovic made two more free throws with 8 seconds from time. Burstein & Goree failed to enforce an overtime with three pointers Sharp & Burstein, heroes of the semi final win over Olimpija. failed to score a point as well as Lewis. Zadar had 12-25 in three pointers to Maccabi 7-21.who had the edge in free throws & rebounds.
Popovic was elected MVP of the Final Four. In the final he had 27pts with 69% FG & 83% in FT. He also recorded 5 assists & 4 rbds.
