It is not his specialty, but in Charleroi it is. With four three-pointers, Willem Brandwijk led Donar to a great victory (68-71) at Spirou Basket in Charleroi, Belgium.
The match in the Elite Gold of the BNXT League resembled a copy of Donar’s 68-66 victory against Hubo Limburg United last week in Martiniplaza. The Groningen team were also three quarters the better team in the Spiroudome of Charleroi. Only in the third quarter, where the ten-time Belgian champion came back from the 25-35 halftime score to 49-48, did Donar sink slightly.
But precisely in the decisive phase in the last quarter, the men of coach Andrej Stimac regained the strong basketball team of the first part of the game. At the score 64-66, the tension was high in the room, Brandwijk scored his fourth three-pointer, Viktor Gaddefors missed two free throws, but Clay Mounce decided the game with two cool free throws.
In good shape
Donar was also in good shape in the first half. The Groningen team had their defense perfectly in order and kept the Belgian opponent far from their own basket. Where the three-pointers did fall at Donar, Spirou’s men did not succeed. The first quarter ended 21-13 in Groningen’s favor and that lead expanded to 35-25 for Donar halfway through. The weak third quarter seemed to throw a spanner in the works in Groningen, but the recovery was strong and convincing.
Steph Branch made his debut at Donar two weeks ago. In terms of scoring, he did that satisfactorily with nine points, but was offset by six sloppy ball losses.
Donar’s assistant coach Kevin Verhulst was delighted. “It was a very intense match, in which we came out very strong at times. We are very happy with this victory, perhaps not expected by many.” For Sander Hollander, the match in Belgium had a special touch. ,,My parents live in Limburg, it almost seemed like a home game for them. I’m very happy that we could show them that we can play basketball pretty well.”