10th round of the Superleague is over. Candidate for the second place – Olimpi defeated outsider – Mgzavrebi in a tense battle 76:73 and achieved its goal. In the remaining 1 round, Olimpi doesn’t have a chance to catch up with TSU, but they will probably meet New Year on the second place.
Mgzavrebi defeated Dinamo by 41 points in the previous round and one of the main reasons for this victory were new legionnairesy – Lovell Cabbil and Joseph Rocca. It was Rocca whose very effective play helped Mgzavrebi to win the first period convincingly – 26:20. Mgzavrebi had 8-points leadership for the big break. Rocca scored 17 points in the first period and 24 in the first half in total.
Dimitri Jakobov and his assistants changed Olimpi’s tactic on the big break. A main accent was made on defense. The idea was justified and the game equalized in the third period. As Rocca was stopped, the Olympians began to reduce the difference, which they did slowly, methodically. They, however, reduced just 2 points in the third period and strengthened defense even more in the final period.
3 minutes before the final siren, Revaz Rogava equalized the score with a three-pointer – 70:70. Mgzavrebi players got confused, they were leading throughout the game and didn’t expect this. Buba Berishvili’s team missed some really convenient balls in the decisive moments, which resulted in defeat. Olimpi was going step by step towards victory and with the effectiveness of Kakha Jincharadze, who was virtually unstoppable throughout the game, reached the goal.
Eventually, Olimpi won 76:73 and after 10 matches of the first circle collected 6 victories. This team is now on the second place of the standigs. Kakha Jintcharadze led the winners to the victory. He collected 33 points and 13 rebounds. Kory Holden scored 17 points. Davion Turner had 7 points. Joseph Rocca was the most effective with 28 points in Mgzavrebi, so the Canadian legionnaire scored just 4 points in the second half. Taj Spencer had 18 points and 14 rebounds.
The last, 11th round of the first cixle of the Superleague will be held from December 20 to 22.
