It was a great game in quarterfinal of Kresimir Cosic Cup. Two fallen basketball giants have collided in front of 4500 fans in Kresimir Cosic Hall. In a great fan made atmosphere Ante Delas won the game for Zadar with a buzzer beater tip in, after the miss of Ivan Batur. The final result was 90-89.
However, only one name was ringing in the ears of every fan in the hall after the match – Goran Vrbanc. A truly historical performance for him (44 pts!! 9-12 for 3pt!!). Experienced guard Davor Kus had 25 for Cibona.
It was a true test for Zadar team, that showed how close are they to ABA League competitors. We have to say that Vrbanc will not be able to perform like this in every game and Zadar will have to work a lot more if they want to win teams like Zagreb and Cedevita.
The conclusion is that basketball is slowly coming back to Zadar. The fans are starting to recognize the work of coach Ales Pipan and sports director Branko Skroce with young domestic players, and if this continues on we could rightfully start to call Zadar – The City of Basketball once again.
On the other hand, Cibona should also look for young domestic players, rather than giving a lot of money for A BIG NOTHING to foreign players such as Barbour and Harper who were really disappointing during the most of this season.
Sime Taras & Matija Balovic are CroHoops.com correspondents from Zadar, Croatia
