The 17th Memorial of Dudu Dadiani was opened today at Tbilisi Olympic Palace. All 10 teams of the Super League are participating in this year’s draw and they are distributed in 2 groups. Traditionally, the Dadiani Memorial is the first tournament of the season and the teams use it to test legionnaires and spy on rivals. This tournament is not an exception: the matches held today were quite interesting.
Mgzavrebi – MIA Academy-Titebi 91:90
Mgzavrebi earned bronze medals in the last season of Super League, which is Adrian Bowie’s great merit. Mgzavrebi maintained him this season too, and this perhaps was the best choice for the team. Bowie scored 30 points against MIA Academy-Titebi and helped his team to start the Dadiani Memorial with a victory.
The fate of the match was resolved in the last 2 minutes when Mgzavrebi’s leadership had reached 10 points. Before that, the game was such an equal that none of the teams managed to get a 5-point lead. Rezo Chachanidze and Kakha Jintcharadze helped Bowie a lot in the last period and eventually, they managed to win. Ilia Londaridze – former Dinamo player had a great debut in MIA Academy-Titebi. He scored 20 points.
Cactus – Olimpi 84:85
Both teams have played a fast Basketball. The meeting came out to be interesting and ended with the victory of the team, which was leading throughout the match (except for few moments). Olimpians retained American legionary Mark Ogden from the last season. They added two more foreigners and formed a good team.
Olimpians won the first period 30:19 and maintained the lead until the last minute. Cactus has some new Georgian and foreigner players and they need some time to get used to each other, accordingly, they played better at the end of the meeting. Cactus gained a lead 2 minutes before the end, they were winning when just 6 seconds were left but finally, they lost the ball, Mark Ogden assisted the ball to Charles Bennett who scored at the last second with the accompaniment of the final siren.
TSU-Hyundai – Dinamo 66:65
The owner of the Dudu Dadiani memorial title and the Super League champion Dinamo Tbilisi lost with the debutant TSU-Hyundai. Giorgi Korsantia scored the winning point from the penalty, but victory was the merit of all the players and coaches of the TSU-Hyundai team. Super League’s debutants fought exemplary, they defeated current Super League champions and one of the most effective teams of recent years.
Tsu-Hyundai maintained Christopher Anderson in this season too and they also added a good Serbian centre – Ratko Petric and American James Milliken. Add them motivated Georgian players and quite good roster has gathered in the team of Nikoloz Cherqezishvili. They can offer surprises for the next season.
Delta – Rustavi 77:71
Delta defeated Rustavi in the last match of the first round. Actually, they were losing throughout the game but with the help of Beka Bekauri and American legionary – Rom Branderford they gained a leadership at the decisive moment and went to the victory. Delta changed its town and will represent Tbilisi in this season.
Rustavians have 3 legionaries and they are quite drain but their effective game didn’t help to win this time. Delta fought until the end and gained a deserved victory. Rustavi will hold the next match against Batumi on October 17 and Delta will play against Dinamo on the same day.
