Dusko Ivanovic: “I never give up, but the team did tonight”

The coach of the Battles of the Basque Country, Dusko Ivanovic, has said that he never gives up, although his team did surrender and did not “fight”, in the duel against Barça, on the Euroleague, with a disastrous game, especially “defensively”.

“We were not at the level of Barça in defense and there was no game. In forty minutes they were about to score 100 points and we only made fifteen fouls. We could have left the whole team for five personnel, to see what would have happened,” he has commented the technician.

Ivanovic regrets that his team did not respond to the message he launched last Sunday after beat Unicaja asking for the involvement of more players. “We have already seen how the response was,” he said.

The Vitorian coach has declared that Baskonia “was always a team that fought for 40 minutes and now when they have a difficulty in attack, especially in positional, and the rival takes an advantage we go down”.

Ivanovic recognizes that the problem of the team “can be mental and of mental quality” of the players. “Barça played as usual but the problem was us,” adds the coach.

Despite the clear defeat, the coach urges the team to “forget” this defeat and go out “with another energy” in the next matches because they are a team that can play “against everyone.”