Today, 14th memorial tournament of Olympic champions – Zurab Sakandelidze and Mikheil Qorqia started in Kutaisi. The tournament of the most titled basketball players of Georgia is held since 2006, their native town – Kutaisi is hosting this tournament for the last two years.
8 teams of Superleague participating in the memorial are divided into 2 groups. Today, every team played in the first round and all the matches were very tense excep the last one. Dinamo and Batumi met each other in the first match the fate of which was decided in the last minutes. Batumi was leading almost the whole game, but finally, they lost 70:80.
Demagoj Bubalo led the winners with 22 points. Levan Grdzelidze had 18 points. Jordan Swopshire scored 10 points and 11 rebounds. Kasey Shepherd was the most effective with 21 points in Batumi. Stefan Andrejevic collected 15 points and 9 rebounds. Dejan Jeftic scored 14 points.
There was a one-point difference in the second match. TSU-Hyundai defeated Olimpi in atense battle – 81:80. The meeting was going on with the transitional advantage. TSU won the first period 24:16 and Olimpi won the second – 24:14. Eventually, the team trained by Nikoloz Cherqezishvili won by 1 point.
American Christopher Anderson led the winners with 29 points. Ratko Petric collected 13 points. Koka Tomaradze had 11 points. Mark Ogden was the most effective with 24 points in Olimpi. Revaz Rogava scored 19 points. Charles Bennett had 12 points.
Delta and Mgzavrebi played in the third match. This meeting was also very tense the fate of which was decided in the last minutes as well. New legionary – American Prince Williams played in Mgzavrebi, which scored 23 points in his very first match. However, his team lost in the final minutes – 94:97. Delta lacked two legionaries – Artem Shvets and William Branderbarg, but they went to quarter-finals of Georgian Cup and now started this memorial with a victory.
Beqa Beqauri led thi winners with 22 points and 11 rebounds. Otar Pkhakadze scored 20 points, Saba Lobjanidze scored 16 points. Adrian Bowie was the most effective with 29 points in Mgzavrebi. Rezo Chachanidze scored 7 three-pointers and 26 points in total. Above-mentioned Prince Williams collected 6 rebounds and 5 assists together with 23 points.
In the final match of the day, the host of the tournament and the winner of the previous season – Kutaisi defeated Cactus by 15 points – 89:74. Cactus had chance during the first 3 periods. Kutaisi had just 6 points advantage before the final quarter, but eventually they easily gained the victory.
De Juan Wright was the distinctive one in Kutaisi, he scored 17 points. 3 players collected 13 points, these are Jonathan Lee, LJ Booth and Terrence Thompson. The later had 10 rebounds as well. Nicholas Neal was the most effective with 18 points in Cactus. Anatoli Boisa and Delano Spencer scored 14-14 points each.
Kutaisi Sports Palace will host 4 matches of the second round on February 5th.
Find statistics of memorial matches in the relevant section of our website:
http://gbf.ge/tournament/sakandelidze-qorqia/schedule#mbt:275-303$t&0=1
