ULEB Cup Draw profile: PGE Turow
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Perhaps the biggest surprise among the teams that won their regular season group is PGE Turow Zgorzelec, which dominated Group I with an amazing 8-2 record. The ULEB Cup newcomers, led by head coach Saso Filipovski, did just about everything right, stringing together a seven-game winning streak at one point. The key to success was tough defense – Turow ranked third in the competition with just 69.5 points allowed per game – and having two reliable scorers in David Logan and Thomas Kelati. Turow started its first ULEB Cup campaign downing EiffelTowers Den Bosch 80-65 at home behind 23 points by Kelati. A trip to Croatia in Week 2 was met by an 85-74 loss at Zadar, but the team wouldn’t need to get used to those. The magic started the next week when Turow started its streak by thrashing Strasbourg 66-42 with a great defensive performance and 18 points from Logan. The team’s confidence exploded after a trip to Russia to play in Kazan resulted in a 75-80 win at the end of a thrilling game. Six players scored in double digits with Logan again leading the way with 15. Back at home it was time to beat Hapoel Jerusalem 78-68 and to finish with a  4-1 record the first part of the regular season. Logan erupted for 34 points in that win. Kelati was the go-to-guy from three-point land as Turow defeated EiffelTowers 70-77. He and Logan amassed 50 points while veteran Dragisa Drobnjak set a double-double of 15 points and 10 boards. Turow took its revenge against Zadar at home 77-72 in Week 7 at the end of another thrilling game, in which Logan scored the last 6 points of his side. A 5-15 run in the last moments gave Turow a 61-64 success on the road over Strasbourg to seal the qualification behind 22 points from Kelati. The squad followed its unbeaten run by downing Unics Kazan 73-68 to reach an 8-1 record as Kelati scored the go-ahead basket. By then it was all but finished as the club was 8=1 and had sealed first place. A Week 10 trip to Jerusalem was for protocol only and Turow dropped an 89-74 decision. By then everyone had taken notice of the newcomers looking to crash the party and book a trip to the Final Eight.
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POST-DRAW REACTIONS | PGE Turow head coach, Saso Filipovski:"Basically, I'm very happy that we will be playing with CEZ Nymburk. Actually, I'm happy of this choice. First of all CEZ is very hard and well prepared team, and they will certainly play hard basketball. We will have to play on 120% to win, and then if we win we will be able to get to another part of competition. I believe in my boys and I believe that we will win." | PGE Turow Zgorzelec general manager, Arkadiusz Krygier:"I think that Nymburk is one of the most difficult opponents we could face. We already played friendly games against Nymburk before the season. I have to tell that they are a very good team with a really good coach, as well as a great basketball organization. The only good thing is that fans from both teams can attend both games, as Nymburk and Zgorzelec are close to each other, even when none of us is going to play in our usual arenas, since we play in Liberec and they do it in Pardubice. Also, we have the same sponsor, different names but belonging to the same company. It will also be an interesting game from this point of view. We have to play very well to advance to the next round. We will play our home game in the Czech Republic but we have been unbeaten in that court so far. I don't think it will be a big handicap for us. Both teams play away, it is strange but true." |
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