Dinamo gained gold points, while Mgzavrebi lost

Tension in the Super League rises as the regular season comes to an end. The fight is taking place more between the outsiders than at the top of the standings, who are struggling for the main goal, to stay in the major league. The teams at the top of the standings have their distance from the relegation zone reduced so much that the number of teams fighting to stay in the Super League increases from round to round. The clear leaders are Rustavi and Kutaisi, while the other teams do not have a guarantee to stay in the Super League yet.

Judge for yourself: Titebi in the last place has 9 losses, and Batumi in the third place has 8. There is a big fight going on for each point and the result of each match has a gold price. The last 2 meetings of the next round held today were of such importance. The clash of teams at the bottom of the standings, in which Dinamo took the most important point from the rival Titebi. And second match between Rustavi and Mgzarvebi, which takes the last place with the lost points for now. 

A big fight was held in both meetings and in Qvemo Qartli the case almost came to a great unexpectedness. The match between the teams at the poles of the standings turned out to be so tense that no one could say that these are opponents with 1 and 10 losses who meet each other. Mgzavrebi, coached by Buba Berishvili, which played without the main point guard, Otar Pertaia, held an equal fight with the sole leader of the Super League and if they got a little lucky, they would win. 

This little luck is as follows: If Troy Steward’s shot from close range in the last second of main time had got into basket, the match would have ended in favor of Mgzavrebi – 76:74, however, the shot of American legionnaire didn’t get to the point and the game moved to overtime. The second misfortune was in the last second of overtime, it was a three-pointer of Jadon Cohee, which exceeded the goal and eventually, Rustavi won – 81:78 (Statistics).

Mgzavrebi knew the result of the newly completed match of the rivals – Tbilisi Dinamo and Titebi, which did not matter much to Berishvili’s team. Mgzavrebi needed to win, for which they did everything, fought exemplarily, but lost by 3 points in overtime.

The fight between Dinamo and Titebi mentioned in the previous paragraph was really important and especially for these teams themselves. Titebi coached by Manuchar Markoishvili was ahead of Dinamo by a point, both of them were at the bottom of the standings and the winner would receive a significant bonus. The match went on with a transitional advantage. In the beginning, Titebi was winning, going to the big break with a lead of 9 points (21:12). Dinamo soon sorted out the game and took the lead until the big break- 38:37.

The third period ended in a draw – 13:13, after which it was Dinamo’s turn. They made a solid escape, left the opponent behind and reached the victory in such a way that the situation on the court did not become tense:  73:61 (statistics). Alonzo Walker led Dinamo with 17 points and 9 rebounds. Luka Bulashvili scored 14 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists. Michael Edwards had 13 points and 7 rebounds. Tylan Birts was the most effective in Titebi with 18 points and 9 rebounds. Davit Lomidze scored 12 points and Branden Aughburns collected 11 points.

The next round matches of the Super League will be held on March 19 and 20 in Tbilisi and Batumi.