Adriatic League, Quarterfinal Playoffs, Game 2: March 27-29, 2008
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Partizan Igokea will arrive to its Euroleague Basketball Quarterfinal Playoff showdown against Tau Ceramica in good spirits after sweeping Cibona Zagreb in its Adriatic League quarterfinals series. The defending champs became the first team in the competition to book a spot in the semis. Uros Tripkovic drilled a season-high 6 triples en route to 26 points as Partizan won 93-100 in the Croatian capital to wrap up the best-of-three series. Meanwhile, the remaining three series will all go to a deciding third game. FMP edged Zadar 99-94 in overtime, Buducnost topped Hemofarm Stada 64-55 and Union Olimpia trounced Red Star 88-60. A balanced scoring attack led by Dragan Labovic led FMP to avenge its overtime loss from Game 1, despite Zadar’s high-scoring trio of Rok Stipcevic, Corey Brewer and Juby Johnson. Olimpija powered past Red Star in a game that was made east thanks to a 25-8 second period and a 47-23 halftime lead. Maurice Bailey led Olimpija with 16 points. And Buduscnost evened its series at 1-1 thanks to a tremendous defensive effort against Hemofarm.
Partizan Igokea will arrive to its Euroleague Basketball Quarterfinal Playoff showdown against Tau Ceramica in good spirits after sweeping Cibona Zagreb in its Adriatic League quarterfinals series. Uros Tripkovic drilled a season-high 6 triples en route to 26 points as Partizan won 93-100 in the Croatian capital to wrap up the best-of-three series. Nikola Pekovic scored 5 points in a 0-9 first-period run as the Serbian champs took the lead. Cibona tied the score a number of times in the second period, but Partizan also answered back. Milenko Tepic gave Partizan a 47-57 lead early in the third period, however Cibona continued to fight and Barisa Krasic made closed the gap to 68-72 late in the period. Partizan led by 8 after 30 minutes and Pekovic and Tripkovic pushed the lead up to 73-87 early in the fourth quarter as Partizan wrapped up the win and the series. Pekovic added 22 points and 8 rebounds for the winners, while Novica Velickovic posted 16, Dusan Kecman 14 and Milt Palacio dished 8 assists. Corey Williams paced Cibona with a season-high 26 points, Luksa Andric and Marin Rozic added 13 points apiece and Chris Warren finished with 10.
Union Olimpia trounced Red Star 88-60 in Game 2 of their series in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Olimpija took care of business early, using a pair of 6-0 spurts to take a promising lead in the second period and then ending the quarter with 11 unanswered points for a 47-23 halftime lead. The hosts outscored Red Star in every quarter, but it was the 25-8 second period that proved to be the difference. Maurice Bailey led Olimpija with 16 points, Ronell Taylor had 15, Marko Milic 14 and Hasan Rizvic 12. Elmedin Kikanovic led Red Star with 16, but the bigger story was star point guard Omar Cook, who was coming off a season-best 32 points in Game 1, going 0 for 9 from the field and 3 for 10 from the free-throw line for a season-low 3 points and 2 assists in 30 minutes.
FMP and Zadar battled to overtime for the second straight time, with FMP victorious 99-94 this time to force a deciding Game 3. Dragan Labovic scored 17 points to lead six FMP scorers in double figures. Zadar’s hot three-point shooting gave the visitors a 17-27 lead after 10 minutes, but Ivan Zigeranovic sparked a 9-0 run to finish the first half that put FMP back on top, 34-33. The hosts threatened to run away with the game when Predrag Samardziski heated up and made it a 10-point game with seven minutes remaining, however Juby Johnson and Rok Stipcevic continued to push Zadar back and then Corey Brewer arrived down the stretch to complete the comeback and force overtime. But FMP recovered and scored 7 unanswered points in the extra period to go ahead and then managed to hold off Zadar in the final minutes. Filip Covic added 14 points for FMP, Nemanja Protic had 13, Mladen Jeremic 12, Bojan Krstovic 11 and Zigeranovic 10. Stipcevic drilled 8 triples for a season-high 31 to lead Zadar, Brewer added 23 and Johnson scored 21 in defeat.
Buducnost evened its series at 1-1 thanks to a tremendous defensive effort in a 64-55 win over Hemofarm Stada. Nemanja Gordic scored 15 to lead Buducnost, but the real weapon was the defensive effort that held Hemofarm to 10-for-27 two-point and 4-for-17 three-point shooting. A Vladimir Dasic triple made it 21-11 early in the second period and the lead reached 35-22 by halftime. It peaked at 15 a number of times in the second half as Buducnost cruised to victory. Nikola Otasevic added 9 points as six players scored at least 7 points for the winners. Nebojsa Joksimovic led Hemofarm with 13 points, Stefan Markovic scored 12 and Vladan Vukosavljevic finished with 11.
| Quarterfinal Playoffs, best of 3 games |
| Record | Team | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | | 2 | Partizan Igokea (1) | 90 | 100 | x | | 0 | Cibona (8) | 80 | 93 | x | | 1 | Crvena Zvezda (4) | 93 | 60 | March 31 | | 1 | Union Olimpija (5) | 87 | 88 | - | | 1 | Zadar (2) | 95 | 94 | March 29 | | 1 | FMP (7) | 91 | 99 | - | | 1 | Hemofarm Stada (3) | 87 | 55 | March 29 | | 1 | Buducnost (6) | 71 | 64 | - |
| Quarterfinal games | | Game 1 | Partizan Igokea vs. Cibona | 90-80 | March 25 | | Game 1 | Zadar vs. FMP | 95-91 OT | March 25 | | Game 1 | Hemofarm Stada vs. Buducnost | 87-71 | March 25 | | Game 1 | Crvena Zvezda vs. Union OLimpija | 93-87 | March 26 | | Game 2 | Cibona vs. Partizan Igokea | 93-100 | March 27 | | Game 2 | FMP vs. Zadar | 99-94 OT | March 27 | | Game 2 | Buducnost vs. Hemofarm Stada | 64-55 | March 27 | | Game 2 | Union Olimpija vs. Crvena Zvezda | 88-60 | March 29 | | Game 3 | Zadar vs. FMP | - | March 29 | | Game 3 | Hemofarm Stada vs. Buducnost | - | March 29 | | Game 3 | Crvena Zvezda vs. Union OLimpija | - | March 31 |
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