After a difficult start to the game, BC Prievidza rallied to beat hot-shooting Nitra Blue Wings 93-89 in a crucial matchup between TIPOS SBL playoff home advantage contenders.

It had been a busy week for BC with the arrival of three new signings: Point Guard Jordan Johnson, who had worked under Head Coach Gareth Murray before at Caledonia Gladiators, flew in from Istanbul after Turkish 2nd league outfit Haremspor had released him. Slovak big and Prievidza native Jacob O’Connell joined from the Spanish 3rd league’s Córdoba. Young three-point sniper L’ubomír Urban came on board from the NEXTGEN project in Bratislava.

However, early on the visitors made all the headlines: Fueled by incredible shot-making from beyond the arc, they jumped out to an early 4-21 lead. Former BC players Oleksandr Belikov and Martin Chlupis displayed extra motivation and led the charge at the beginning, connecting on a combined 8 of 10 threes over the course of the game with Belikov even using the glass on one occasion. Other than that, mainly the Langley twins, Keyshaun and Kobe, continued to create headaches for the hosts’ defense. Throughout the contest, they converted even high-difficulty attempts off the dribble and finished with 40 points between them.

And BC struggled: Turnovers piled up, often due to a lack of chemistry with the new signings. The shots were not falling, as evidenced by only six made triples on the night. But despite seemingly everything going against them, Murray’s Miners showed signs of resistance after what surely had to have been an animated half-time talk from their Head Coach.

With both teams being short-handed at the center position (BC’s Hunter Dean and Nitra’s Michael Fusek both out due to injury), a couple of “ultra small-ball” line-ups were on display. The hosts now started to take advantage of these unorthodox circumstances. In particular forward Marc Loving proved to be a matchup nightmare for the guests. He secured game MVP honors with 29 points and 16 boards while also dishing out three assists.

Keith Jordan (20 points, seven rebounds) with a three from the top of the key and a putback, C.J. Jackson with a huge and-one underneath the basket and captain Marek Jašš with two timely corner triples swayed the momentum in the Miners’ direction. But the game-winning play came from newest addition Jordan Johnson, whose debut had been marred by two early fouls in the first half: He turned on the jets, looked off the shooters waiting in the corners and calmly finished through contact for the and-one that sealed the win for the home team.

A perfect game? Far from it. An aesthetic demonstration of well-orchestrated basketball? Certainly not. But the Prievidza crowd saw a resilient squad that forced odds to turn in their favour. And there were hints at the new signings adding quality and excitement. More to come…

Photo: Vladimír Králik