Mornar basketball players lost two games in the first two rounds of this year’s ABA league tournament, same as they lost in the whole second part of last year’s season.

At the same time, the team from Bar had more defeats in Slovenia during nine days, compared to the whole previous two seasons (3:1 against Olimpia and 2:0 against Krka). While the lack of success against the Ljubljana team was somewhat expected, the defeat by the Novo Mesto team was difficult for the leadership, players, and fans of Mornar. Krka definitely doesn’t have a better team than Mornar and winning this game could have been a strong push for Mornar to continue the very arduous season, where they have an extremely difficult schedule at the very beginning. The Bar team went from Novo Mesto to Torino, where they’ll play Fiat on Wednesday, October 10, within the second round of the EuroCup „D“ group.

Upon returning to Bar, on Sunday, October 14, in the third round of ABA league, they will play Partizan in Topolica hall, and three days later they will play Unikah from Malaga in the third round of the EuroCup. The series of difficult opponents will be completed on October 21 and 24, when they will play in ABA league in Zadar, and in EuroCup against Skyliners in Frankfurt. Thus, from October 3 to 24, Mornar will have played eight games, four in ABA league and EuroCup each, five of which will be on home turf. 

Last season, at press conferences, after the games in ABA league, head coaches of the teams that played Mornar were all emphasizing that the players from Bar had a greater desire to win. Now Mihailo Pavićević is in that position, and it seems that this is what hurts him the most after his team’s defeats.

„Unfortunately for us, Krka players wanted to win more than we did, which I do not understand“ – said the Mornar head coach.

Pavićević has no doubt that the host team is the absolute favorite in the upcoming duel in „D“ group in Torino:

„We expect a game against a very strong team from Torino. I already said that each win in the EuroCup would be pure gold and a huge boost for us. We are focused on the ABA league, while we see the EuroCup competition against much more expensive and quality rivals, as a great opportunity to compare our standing with top teams, as well as an opportunity to improve form during games in which we’re not preoccupied with the final score“, says Pavićević.

Strahinja Mićović still hasn’t reached the last season’s form:  

„We will be playing an exceptional team, which is very strong in all positions. An additional difficulty for us will be the Italians’ desire to make up for the defeat in the first round of the „D“ group in Frankfurt, and the desire to present themselves in the best light in front of their home audience, during the first game of EuroCup. Our priority is to improve form in this game and to reach the desired level of play as soon as possible. We were doing well only in the first quarter against Krka and later dropped, although if we had been better focused, we could have scored at the end. Generally, the game was not at the desired level, neither in defense nor in offense", says Mićović.

For the upcoming duel with the Italians, head coach Pavićević cannot count neither on injured Đorđe Drenovac.

The second round game in the EuroCup „D“ group, Fiat Torino – Mornar, will take place on Wednesday, October 10, at 20:30 h.