Krka suffered a defeat against Split on their home court by 80:76, in the context of the ABA League and the 23rd round.
In this game, Gasper Okorn couldn’t count on one of his best players, Jurij Macura, while on the other side, the Split team was complete for this encounter.
We witnessed a highly inefficient first quarter, which the home team managed to win by 15-14. Practically half of his team’s points were scored by Jan Span, Krka’s best player this season, but he didn’t receive much help from his teammates.
Young Vito Kucic started the second quarter nicely with four consecutive points, but the home team had an answer through Darko Planinic, who quickly scored five points. Toni Perkovic managed to give Split a 32:27 lead with a 5:0 run, shifting the momentum to the visiting team’s side. Both Shannon Shorter and Perkovic scored three-pointers for their respective teams, Span responded with two three-pointers, setting the final score at 38:35 for the Croatian team.
In the second half, a similar narrative unfolded, with a highly balanced game where neither team managed to establish a significant lead. Mate Kalajzic was in good form for the visitors, receiving assistance from Perkovic, who carried over his good performance from the first half. Only Justin Hamilton, alongside Span, showed some form for Krka, enabling them to stay in the game. The third quarter ended with a score of 57:51 in favor of Slaven Rimac’s team.
The fourth quarter began with a 6:0 run by the visitors, giving them a double-digit lead for the first time in the game and prompting Krka’s coach, Gasper Okorn, to call a timeout after just a minute and a half. However, Krka didn’t give up, as they made an 11:2 run to close the gap to just three points (68:65). The crucial points of the match were scored by Kalajzic from an offensive rebound, making it 74:70 with a minute to go. After a foul in the attack by Miha Cerkvenik, reducing the deficit to 76:70 with 40 seconds remaining, it became clear that Split would emerge as the winner of this game.
The top scorer for the victorious team was Toni Perkovic with 16 points, followed by Mate Kalajzic and Tonko Vuko with 14 points each. In the losing team, Jan Span was the leading scorer with 19 points, while Miha Cerkvenik had an excellent game with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Justin Hamilton ended with 16 points.
With this win, Split improves to a record of 11-12, sitting tied for seventh place with Studentski centar and Igokea. Krka remains at the bottom of the ABA League standings with a record of 4-18.