Kuzmanovski one assist shy of a double-double as Metalurg stun Meshkov

Metalurg - Meshkov Brest

 

Heavily weakened Meshkov Brest failed to beat Metalurg in Skopje on Wednesday evening in a match which was, because of Gorenje's loss in Zagreb yesterday, not that important for Belarusian champs who have already booked a SEHA Final 4 place for themselves. Kuzmanovski played an amazing match with ten goals and nine assists while Halil Jaganjac added nine goals in what ended up becoming one of the biggest surprises of the regular part of the season so far. In the end 37:33 (17:17) in favor of hosts.

Due to Belarusian championship obligations, Meshkov head-coach Sergey Bebeshko remained in Belarus with the bigger part of the team while his assistant Andrey Mochalov led an 11-player roster in Skopje tonight.

Even with such a weakened roster Meshkov were able to control the match in the first half and in the opening part of the second. However, after that hosts took over and from that moment on it was simply all Metalurg on the court.

With this win Macedonian vice-champions finally put an end to a five-game losing streak beating Meshkov after four years and reaching their first SEHA triumph in almost a month.

In the next round Meshkov will host Gorenje and Metalurg will travel to Presov to meet Tatran.