Karpos Sokoli gets a dramatic first win of the season
KK Karpos Sokoli 2000 finally managed to take its first win of the season. In a group B game the Skopje team hosted SK Tirana and took a very hard fought 78-74 victory. The home side played a great first quarter but in the second half the visitors showed great heart and cameback in the game. It was decided in the final minute when the hosts scored their free throws while Tirana failed to execute. With that result Karpos now has 1-2 record while the Albanians are at 1-3. Next week Sokoli will visit MKK Feni Industries in the Macedonian derby of the group while on November 24th Tirana will visit Trepca.
It was a great first quarter for Karpos who led early. The hosts did very well and in just five minutes were already up by 11. After that they kept the advantage and when the first quarter ended it was 14 points. In the second period the lead reached 20 but Tirana managed to close the gap to 15 at the break.
With four minutes played in the third quarter the hosts still had a very good lead - 13 points. Then however something changed and the visitors made a 16-2 run which put them ahead by 1. After that moment the game became very close as both teams started exchanging points. So it was no surprise that the last two minutes started with the score tied at 71 after Tirana made a 4-0 run. After a Karpos miss the visitors continued with a triple by Ramme and after both teams couldn′t score Perry made a lay-up for 73-74 with 46 seconds to play. In the next offense Shima missed and then fouled Labovic who made only one free throw to tie the score. Then Manuel Johnson sent a bad p?ss to a teammate and wuth 24 seconds to go the hosts had a chance to win. Tirana then decided to foul Perry who made both free throws as after Ramme lost the ball. The American again went to the foul line, again scored twice and sealed the game.
Kendrick Perry was the top scorer for the win with 15 points while also adding 6 assists and making 6 turnovers. Dragan Zekovic had a good game with 14 points and 8 rebounds while Dragan Labovic and Goran Vrbanc scored 12 points apiece.
Gerti Shima played very well for the visitors and finished with a double-double of 23 points and 13 rebounds. Endrit Hysenagolli also had double figure with 17 and 11 as Griffin Ramme added 16 points and 6 rebounds.
FULL STATS FROM KK KARPOS SOKOLI 2000 - SK TIRANA GAME
No Games Scheduled |
Delasport Balkan League 2023/2024 Regular Season | |||
1 | KB Sigal Prishtina | 8 - 2 | 18 |
2 | PAYABL EKA AEL | 6 - 4 | 16 |
3 | KB Peja | 6 - 4 | 16 |
4 | KK Lovcen 1947 | 4 - 6 | 14 |
5 | KK Plevlja | 0 - 8 | 8 |