It took tremendous effort and mental resilience, but Donar pulled it off. The Groningen basketball pride won the second game in the semi-final against Heroes Den Bosch in its own Martiniplaza 69-60 and thus made it 1-1.
After the sour, narrow and unnecessary 71-68 defeat in Den Bosch last Wednesday evening, Donar’s assignment for the first home game was clear: win and nothing else. In order to equalize the position in this semi-final for the Dutch basketball title, where it concerns three won games. Coach Andrej Stimac explained the defeat in Den Bosch: ,,There we lost on rebounds. That is why we mainly worked on that in the run-up to this second competition.”
Light predominance
The match in Martiniplaza started with a slight advantage for the Groningen team. But when former Donar coach Erik Braal, now working in Den Bosch, fled in a timeout, Donar’s 13-6 lead quickly disappeared. Heroes came back to 13-12 and the first quarter ended 17-15. It was clear that the defenses of the two teams were strong. Donar was missing Kjeld Zuidema, for whom the season is over due to a tear in his meniscus.
The second quarter was little different. There was balance. Three-pointers made all the difference. Where the guests from Den Bosch hit four of their fifteen attempts from a distance, Donar was stuck at a paltry one out of twelve against 8.3. For example, the otherwise accurate Willem Brandwijk got stuck on four missed shots from a distance in the first half. Halfway through the game, both teams went to the locker room with the score 33-35.
Gear up
An exasperated Donar then stepped it up a notch. The ambition radiated from the dressing room with the Stimac men. Despite the trouble of the two tall men at Donar, the home team fought to take a 55-45 lead. Just like in Den Bosch, things seemed to go wrong in the last quarter, but when Viktor Gaddefors found two three-pointers and Clay Mounce took the ball away from a Heroes player twice, the matter was decided.
With the victory, Donar prevented a repeat of last season when the Groningen team lost 3-0 against the same opponent in the semi-final for the national title. The exciting battle will continue next Sunday in the Maaspoort in Den Bosch.
In the other semi-final, ZZ Leiden also won the second game (64-72) against Aris in Leeuwarden.