A game worth telling your grandchildren about, in Ploiesti tonight. Oradea went into the game without a handful of injured players, and most of all without a point guard, and came away with the victory. Final score 100-101.
You wouldn't have wanted to be in the shoes of coach Cristian Achim before the game. Beside long term injuries of Gutoaia, Tibirna and Popescu the team lost point guard Marcus Hatten on Wednesday and new signing Alexandar Vlahovic couldn't play because of his unfinalized transfer. But he pulled the rabbit out of the hat, like a magician, by using Daniel Dillon as a playmaker, a position he seldom if ever plays. The Australian player didn't just cope with the situation, he performed admirably, scoring 14 points, getting 13 rebounds and dishing out 11 assists, for a formidable triple double in almost 39 minutes on the floor.
Oradea led 98% of the game only to see Ploiesti come back on the final stretch to tie it and then take the lead inside the last minute. But the visitors didn't crumble under the pressure and with two consecutive baskets, counting Subotic's buzzer beater, came away with a well deserved victory. One wouldn't want to disregard Ploiesti's performance, they had a solid game, in spite of the loss, but Oradea simply wanted it more.
Despite the countless injuries Oradea had the longer rotation, all nine players entered on the scoresheet playing at least 9 minutes. Ploiesti only used seven, Szijarto the only Romanian player of the team who got minutes from coach Arnautovic.
With this Ploiesti suffered its 3rd defeat of the season, while Oradea moved up to 3rd in the table with 9 wins.
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