Much to their surprise, the Baltic Stars didn’t survive last weekend’s CBL Playoff Quarter Finals after they lost out to the Kensington & Chelsea Knights who beat them by 2 points (30-28) on Sunday 22nd May 2016.
The K&C Knights knew it’d be a long morning for them if they failed to step up to the challenge of playing the talented Lithuanian stars. With this in mind, the Knights matched the Baltic Stars’ style of organised play and both teams tied 6-6 by the end of the first quarter.
This balance seemed to aggravate the Baltic Stars who then proceeded to step their game up and hurt Knights from outside with Vziugas Loda hitting threes together with Rokas Pacesas, Arnas Petrauskas, Kasparas Aksomaitis and Marius Mitalauskas all racking up 13 points collectively to finish 19-6 going into the half. Knights had a hard time getting around their defensive tactics and came away completely scoreless in the second period.
But there was another half to go.
After a team talk to refocus everyone’s attention, Knights came out firing with the help of players such as Ivan Ballstros who knocked down back to back threes, whilst team mate P. Daniel played his part to secure 6 points, all in an effort to help the team put up 14 points overall, which amounted to double of what their opponents scored.
Now playing with boosted confidence and the win within their grasp, the K&C Knights proved unstoppable, limiting the Lithuanian pack to just one basket whilst a team effort from Ivan Ballstros, P. Daniel and A. Carlos all went off to contribute 10 points combined, including one last three from Ivan before the clock ran out, declaring the Kensington & Chelsea Knights victorious and one step closer to the CBL Playoff Final.
