6 The Kyndall Effect

     

Romanian Cup

Quarter Finals

First Leg

79-91

Q1: 28-17

Q2: 18-23

Q3: 09-31

Q4: 24-20

BC Mures upset Steaua CSM Eximbank Bucuresti in their own home to come away with the win and more importantly with a 12 point advantage for the return leg. The 79-91 victory means that coach Sekulovic's team has a healthy if not comfortable margin to defend in The Jungle on Saturday.

The two teams played against each other in the first round too, and it came down to double overtime to decide the winner then. So there were premises for a tight encounter.

The first half belonged to Steaua, they even lead by as many as 14 points in the second quarter. BC Mures started to claw back into the game at the end of the second quarter, but Steaua had a 6 point lead at the half time buzzer.

The third quarter saw two completely different teams coming out of the locker rooms. While Steaua made turnover after turnover and missed shot after shot, BC Mures had begun to fly on the court. After a 9-31 score of the quarter the winner was mostly decided, but the Romanian Cup has two legs so the teams had to keep playing at their best, Steaua to limit the margin, BC Mures to hold it or increase it. This led to an entertaining fourth quarter, which was won by Steaua 24-20. The final score 79-91 registered a 12 point margin that leaves Steaua with a fighting chance for the return leg.

Kyndall Dykes proved to be the catalyst the team needed. Not only that he scored 25 points in his first game in the white and blue jersey, but he also dished out 8 (!) assists to his teammates, stole 4 balls from the opponents and administered 2 blocks. These are just statistical data, but who watched the game could see that beside scoring, he pulled his teammates along with him, made them want to play better and created open shots by drawing two opponents on him and dishing out the ball selflessly.

Lazar Laszlo who in 12 regular season games scored 19 points total, managed 10 points in this game alone, due to useful assists received right under the basket or on fast breaks. Vlad Corpodean didn't score any points, but his leech-like defense on Barac stopped the Steaua forward from bringing his A game in that period. He also had the highest +/- efficiency of the team with a value of 19. Even Polyak Laszlo played an important part in the game, beside the 3 points he scored, he helped limit Ikonic to a 1 out of 5 three points percentage. Andrei Capusan had his best game of the season, scoring 8 points and 2 rebounds, helping Ivanovic get some most needed rest and limiting his playtime to 22 minutes as opposed to 31 in the championship.

Steaua had a miserable second half this game, and a disastrous third quarter. Although they out rebounded their opponents 36 to 23 and their field goal percentage was only slightly worse than that of their opponents,  the hosts couldn't cope with the suffocating defense and the rain of 3 pointers in the 3rd quarter. For once this season BC Mures had a longer rotation than their opponents and this meant more fresh legs and more precision in the second half of the game.

Although Steaua took some hurt in game 1, and seems to be on the ground, no one should consider them beaten, they are more dangerous than ever, in want to repair their pride and honor. We should look forward to an interesting return leg in Tirgu Mures.