The final of the Belgian Cup brought a victory (65-64) for Ostend versus Kangaroos Mechelen in Paleis 12 in Brussels and after a nervous thriller. For the coastal team immediately the 20th triumph in the Belgian Cup. For the team of coach Dario Gjergja the first Cup since 2018.
No Nick Celis at Kangaroos Mechelen. The 32-year-old Antwerp forward of second division Oxaco signed a contract with the Maneblussers last month and suffered a corona infection in the run-up to the cup final.
The study round was for Kangaroos Mechelen and via Domien Loubry it went to 4-9. Trevor Thompson replaced the dunking Jito Kok and with a three-pointer from Marvin Clark and scores from Thompson it went for Kangaroos against a bad finishing (4 out of 22 shots in the first quarter) Ostend to 7-13. Via the incoming Pierre-Antoine Gillet it went after the first slide to a 13-16 intermediate score in favor of Kangaroos Mechelen.
Ostend dominated the offensive rebound and after the third (light) error for Domien Loubry, the West-Flemish took over command after 22-22: 26-22. Via Keye van der first, Jean-Marc Mwema, Olivier Troisfontaines and Pierre-Antoine Gillet it went after 32-27 and after an attacking rebound and score from the patched Thomas Welsch (Achilles tendon) to a 34-29 bonus halfway in favor of Ostend.
General Dusan Djordjevic took the coastal crew in tow early in the third quarter and immediately dropped two bombs. Marvin Clark did the same for the Maneblussers (43-38), but an experienced Ostend let go and continued to dominate the rebound on the one hand and control the game on the other. In the end of the third slide, however, Kangaroos took Mechelen with a beautiful remonte. Via Jito Kok and a bomb at the buzzer by Jonas Foerts it went after a 2-8 to a 47-48 bonus for Kangaroos.
In the final quarter, the Mechelaars continued their momentum. From a zone defense and with three-pointers from Terry Deroover and a score from Jonas Foerts, it went from 51-53 and with a opinion of Jito Kok to even 51-59. Mo Kherrazi propelled Kangaroos to 55-61. Ostend found the connection with a lot of energy (58-61) and took over the lead again with a three-pointer from Pierre-Antoine Gillet: 61-62. Loïc Schwartz took 64-61 and Trevor Thompson 64-63. Kangaroos Mechelen had the ball, Terry Deroover missed a three-point attempt and after much bickering and intervention by the refs when viewing the images, Ostend gained possession with 4 seconds left on the clock. Jito Kok made a mistake on Dusan Djordjevic and the captain of Oostende scored 1 to 2 free throws: 65-63. With three seconds left, Kangaroos Mechelen had the ball again. After an error, Trevor Thompson was allowed to go to the free-throw line. He missed one free throw (65-64) and after a nail-biting the Cup went to Ostend!
Ostend-Kangaroos Mechelen 65-64
Oostende: Van der vuurst 4, Schwartz 11, Troisfontaines 8, Mwema 4, Buysschaert 6, Djordjevic 8, Gillet 16, Welsch 4, Sylla 2
Kangaroos Mechelen: Loubry 5, Deroover 3, Van Oosterwyck 0, Kherrazi 12, Clark 9, Foerts 10, Lasisi 0, Thompson 12, Kok 13
Quartz: 13-16, 21-13, 13-19, 18-16
.
