Mega HL end 1st phase of Serbian league with 5th win in a row

BIBL Final Four participant Mega Hypo Leasing finished the 1st phase of the Basketball League of Serbia in style. The young team from Belgrade completed a run of 5 consecutive victories by going to Novi Sad and beating the team of the same name 81-85 last night. The overtime away victory versus a fellow middle-of-the-table team showed once more that Mihailo Uvalin`s younsters have the strenght and confidence to beat anyone in the current format of the Serbian league. Unfortunately, their rich vein of form and the 5-game wining run came just a bit too late to launch them into the Top 3 positions and thus quilify them for the Superleague, where the ABA teams join in. Had there been just a few more rounds of the 1st phase to play, surely no one could have stopped Mega Hypo Leasing from getting there. As it is, the team finished with a 15-11 record and the result of Napredak Rubin`s last round game will determine whether they will end up in 4th or 5th place in the table.
 
As is usually the case with the young and inexperienced team, in that Wednesday night game in Novi Sad Mega HL`s performance ebbed and flowed, going from cold to hot to cold again within the regular time. But it was hot when it mattered - during the last 3 of the extra 5 minutes.
 
The visiting team started out with a "cold" streak in the closing minutes of the 1st quarter, after which they found themsleves trailing by a doulble digit margin - 22-12. Then they had their first "hot" moment and it was burning hot - in the span of just 3 minutes at the very end of the first half Mega HL managed to bring their deficit down from 12 points to just 1 at half-time - 37-36.
 
Novi Sad couldn`t recover from that in the 3th quarter either. They lost the lead and Mega HL build a small one of their own. It actually got up to as high as 8 points in the 3rd and even 10 in the last quarter (55-65), but then suffered their second "cold" period. Novi Sad used a 9-0 run to cut their deficit to just 1 point (66-67) and then tied the scores at 71-71 with a pair of successful free throws to take the game into overtime.
 
In that one the Mega HL players had the mental strength to prevail, even though they were behind by 4 points in the second minute of it (75-71). They rallied again and turned it around, that time for good, to win 81-85.
 
Mega HL`s regular top scorer Stefan Stojacic had the most points for the team`s victory once again, but he shared the credit with center Uros Nikolic this time around - both scored 21 points. They also grabbed 6 and 7 rebounds respectively. Three more visiting team players went to double figures in scoring - Miroslav Markovic (13 points), Dusan Katnic (11) and Dusan Cvetkovic (10). Markovic contributed to his team`s win and his own nice all-around performance with 7 boards and 4 assists.