Super League Debutant Caucasus Won Dudu Dadiani Memorial Tournament
Caucasus is the winner of Dudu Dadiani Memorial tournament. Team coached by Beka Tsivtsivadze defeated TSU by 66:54(Statistics) in the final and became the owner of the title for the first time in its history. Caucasians have won “A” League, which is Super League pass, that’s why they have gained right to play at Memorial Tournament in the beginning of the season.
Debutant team has won the main prize for the first time in Memorial History. This fact once more proves that Super League has acquired one more competitive club. Tsivtsivadze’s team has great legionnaires, it is thanks to them that the Caucasians managed to win the final match.
In the begging of the final game TSU was playing well, which gave gathered fans expectation that team was about to win the title. Caucasus scored only 3 points in the first 8 minutes of the game. Lekso Lapanashvili’s team was leading by 12:3. Afterwards Tsivtsivadze’s team scored 10:0 unanswered points and took the lead by 1 point at the end of the first quarter.
Game was equal in the second quarter as well. Caucasians were leading by 29:27 before the end of 1st half. Small amount of scored points was indeed pointing at good defense played by the teams, but there were a lot of mistakes as well, interfering to score. After wonderful debut, Tsintsadze could not play at the same level as in previous match. National Team’s point guard could not overcome Caucasians defense, which was the main reason of their success.
Kris MacNeil’s performance, who became the MVP of the tournament should be outlined as well. His 3 pointers gave 10-point advantage to Caucasus before the end of third quarter. With help of Beka Bekauri and Ebrain Edwards, TSU was able to tie the score 5 minutes before the final buzzer, but Kris Macneil played at high level and brough victory to his team. MVP of the tornament scored 6 three pointer and 27 points in total.
Nita Dadiani, Dudu Dadiani’s niece, presented MVP title to Kris McNeil. Together with Nita, Sandro and Andria Dadianis awarded The championship trophy to the captain – Ilia Londaridze and Caucasus celebrated the first victory of the season.
