It`s not too often when basketball games take place on the first workday. Monday, September 30, is one of those days as BK Opava will meet Spartak Pleven – tipoff at 18.00 CET.
Series history: BK Opava and Spartak Pleven will face each other for the first time.
Storm Boris generated heavy rainfalls in mid September, resulting in big floods – mainly in river valleys – across Austria, Czechia and south western Poland.
Twenty five fatalities were reported.
Spa town Jesenik and Opava were among the worst hit places.
BK Opava home arena was affected by the floods too.
Key matchup: Šimon Puršl enters his third season in the ENBL.
Opava center played for Basket Brno from 2020 until 2023.
Last Wednesday he scored 12 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the road win at Pardubice.
Derek Culver quickly emerged as a top big man for Spartak Pleven.
Former West Virginia center had 19 points and six rebounds in the ENBL opener against Valmiera.
National championships: Kooperativa NBL season started on Saturday, September 21, however, match between BK Opava and SLUNETA Usti nad Labem was re-scheduled after the flood and will be played at a later date.
BK Opava opened the regular season with a 83-76 road win at KVIS Pardubice on Wednesday, September 25.
Four visitors – Šimon Puršl, Robert Paul Howard, Jakub Slavik and Filip Zbranek – scored 11 or more points.
Spartak Pleven suffered a 76-95 defeat against Rilski Sportist in the Sesame NBL SuperCup final on Saturday, September 28, at the Arena Samokov.
Christian Keeling scored 22 points for Pleven, while Derek Culver added 13 points and 15 boards.
Know your referees
Crew chief: Martin Kucirek (Czechia) – referee from 2004, Czech top league from 2015, FIBA referee from 2019.
Umpire 1: Vladimir Zanev (Bulgaria) – FIBA referee from 2017, has worked in Greece and Cyprus before moving to Bulgaria in 2022.
Umpire 2: Stepan Pokorny (Czechia) – Czech top league referee from 2015, has worked at multiple Czech playoffs, including semifinals and finals; ENBL referee from 2022-2023 season.
Observer: Oskars Lucis (Latvia).
ENBL access: follow the game on YouTube
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