Oostende wins Belgian title
BC Telenet Oostende secured a second consecutive Belgian Ethias League title on Wednesday evening with a 68-63 victory over Belfius Mons-Hainaut. The result means that Oostende has once again asserted its dominance in Belgian Basketball by taking the Ethias League finals series by 3 games to 0. The victory also took the clubs total Belgian League title tally to 13.
Oostende was never really in danger during the finals series, and would have been very confident of claiming a clean sweep heading into this game 3 of the best of 5 series. The club had already won game one 88-57 and game two 70-81 and of course had topped the Ethias League at the end of the regular season.
Ideally, the third game was taking place at Oostende’s Sleuyter Arena, allowing the home fans to cheer their team on to title glory. However, during the first quarter it was Mons-Hainaut that took the early impetuous, outscoring Oostende by 15 points to 13 in the first ten minutes. However, that was as good as it was going to get for the visitors as the Oostende players eased any pre-game nerves and found their rhythm.
By half-time the score was 30-25 in Oostende’s favour, but credit must be given to the Mons-Hainaut players for digging deep in the third to give themselves a sight of victory. In fact, during the third quarter the visitors piled on 20 points to secure a narrow 43-45 lead at the final interval. Just like earlier in the game though, going behind spurred Oostende on and the defending champions found another gear in the fourth quarter.
As Mons-Hainaut lost steam, Oostende drove on and punished their opponents with 25 points in the fourth, enough to take a low scoring game 68-63.
The consistent scoring of Serbian guard Dusan Djordjevic was enough to keep Oostende always moving on the scoreboard, Djordjevic finished with a team best 16 points. Matt Lojeski (198 cm, Hawaii’07) also contributed to the Oostende cause with 13 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists, while fellow American Wesley Wilkinson (207 cm, Nebraska’06) also enjoyed a solid game with 10 points.
For Mons-Hainaut, a game high 21 points helped Belgian point guard Guy Muya get over the bitter taste of defeat, while Josh Bostic (196 cm, Findley Ohio’09) also chipped in with 16 points of his own.
Oostende will now join the qualifying rounds for next seasons Euroleague tournament, but not until the players have celebrated winning the Ethias League title for the second year in a row.