Brno Sports Weekly Report — Brno Hoops Continue Winning

Photo Caption: Basket Brno is a young and exciting team. Watch them on tvcom.cz today when they play at Pardubice at 5:30 p.m. Photo Credit: Jan Russnák.

Brno, March 3 (BD) — KP Brno plays in Final 4 tomorrow, postseason begins Monday for both Brno women’s basketball teams; HC Kometa three points behind Pardubice with two games left in regular season; Zbrojovka loses late again; and Lokomotiva women’s football season spring start postponed.   

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Puršl Double-Double Leads Brno

If you are starved for sports — and, more to the point, if watching exciting local sports will help your locked-down mood — then tune into the Basket Brno game tonight.

The Brno men’s basketball team continues to establish itself as a new force within the Czech league, to go along with the long history of success in women’s basketball.

On Saturday, post Šimon Puršl led Basket Brno to an overtime victory in the opening game of Group A1 at Opava, 101-99. Both teams had scoring streaks that made for a back-and-forth game.

Tonight, Brno (14-9) will play at Pardubice (10-13) at 5:30 p.m. Go to tvcom.cz to watch the game online.

In Opava, Puršl had extraordinary totals of 30 points and 20 rebounds. The rebounding was key. Brno out-rebounded Opava, 55-44, overall, and had more than twice the offensive rebounds, 23-11 — which led to a 29-14 advantage in second-chance points.

“I have to praise the players for the fact that, even though Opava was ahead, they did not give up and played the match to a happy ending,” said Brno coach Lubomír Růžička, who has slowly put the pieces together over the past two seasons to establish this team.

Brno is a young team that moves the ball around effectively. Richard Bálint (17 points) and Radek Farský (15) — both of whom played with Puršl on the Czech national team in Lithuania last month — had solid games against Opava.

Opava is led by the league’s leading scorer, Jakub Šiřina, who hit eight 3-pointers when the teams met in Brno a month ago. This time, the defensive adjustments worked, kind of: Šiřina was 1 of 9 from 3-point range, but he still scored 26 points.

The game wouldn’t have been so close if Brno had completed more free throws than 24 of 39 (61 percent); Opava was 29 of 34 (85 percent). Puršl — who as 10 of 15 at the line — hit both free throws with 11 seconds left in order to put Brno up for good and establish the final score.

Group A1 includes the top eight teams from the regular season, who play home-and-away games with each other. The top six teams move on to the postseason. The seventh- and eighth-place teams will need to earn their way with an extra step against teams from Group A2. The postseason is scheduled for April 9 to May 22.

For updated information and the schedule for Basket Brno games, go to the league website at https://www.nbl.cz/. The team website is: https://basketbrno.cz/ Use Google Chrome, right-click anywhere on the page and select “Translate to English”.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

KP Brno Plays in Czech Cup Final 4

The RENOMIA Final4 of the Czech Cup will take place this Thursday and Friday. KP Brno plays host-team Chomutov in one semifinal game at 3 p.m. Slavia plays ZVVZ USK Prague in the other semifinal game at 6:30 p.m.

The teams will come right back on Friday for the consolation final at 3 p.m. and the Czech Cup final at 6:30 p.m.

Then, the adjusted Renomia ŽBL postseason begins on Monday with both Brno teams in best-of-five quarterfinal series. BK Žabiny Brno hosts SBŠ Ostrava at 4 p.m. and KP Brno hosts BLK Slavia Praha at 3:30 p.m.

For updated information and schedules for both local teams, go to the league website at https://www.zbl.basketball/. The KP Brno team website is: http://www.kpbrnobasket.cz/ The Žabiny Brno team website is: https://www.bkzabiny.cz/ Use Google Chrome, right-click anywhere on the page and select “Translate to English”.

MEN’S HOCKEY

Kometa Seeks to Catch Pardubice for Seventh Place

HC Kometa has a nice long column of green scores on their website to indicate victories, but Tuesday introduced a red 2:3 pp, which means that the five-game winning streak was stopped when Brno lost to HC Olomouc in extra time. At least Brno got a point in the standings. 

Kometa is still eighth in the standings with 73 points, but Karlovy Vary is a point behind and Vitkovice is two points back.

HC Dynamo Pardubice, however, is three points ahead in seventh place — and Brno will host them in the final game of the regular season on Sunday at 5:20 p.m.

Prior to that, Brno goes to HC Sparta Praha on Friday at 6 p.m.

Kometa are guaranteed to play in the pre-playoff round. Their opponent in the best-of-five series is to be determined. The top four teams in the league resume play in the best-of-seven quarterfinals during the last two weeks of March.

For the league website, go to https://www.hokej.cz/tipsport-extraliga. For updated information and the schedule, go to the team website at https://hc-kometa.cz/. Use Google Chrome, right-click anywhere on the page and select “Translate to English”.

MEN’S FOOTBALL

Zbrojovka Continues To Struggle at Home

Viktoria Plzeň redirected a poor clearance back into the box to catch the defense off guard and score the only goal of a 0-1 victory over FC Zborjovka Brno last Saturday.

It was par for the course: Zbrojovka has the worst home record in the league. The stadium previously known as Srbska has seen only one victory and six total points. Clearly, Wedos Stadium is not a welcome place without fans in the stands.

Zbrojovka played well throughout February but could not get more than a point from a tie with Zlin.

Overall, Zbrojovka (3-5-13, 14 points) has slipped to in 16th place and back into the relegation zone.

Brno goes to Teplice today for a 2 p.m. MOL Cup game

Then, on Sunday at 2 p.m., Zbrojovka travels to Karviná (6-7-8, 25).

For updated information and the schedule for FC Zbrojovka Brno games, go to the league website at https://www.fortunaliga.cz/. The team website is at https://fczbrno.cz/. Use Google Chrome, right-click anywhere on the page and select “Translate to English”.

WOMEN’S FOOTBALL

Lokomotiva Season Re-start Postponed

Though the women’s football season was to have restarted last week, the Lokomotiva Brno-Horni Herspice at AC Sparta Praha was postponed.

Lokomotiva, which is fourth in the women’s top-league standings, is having its best season. In the fall, it lost its first three games against the top teams in the league, then fought back to compile a season record of 3-0-4 with 9 points.

This month, Brno is scheduled to play three games. They host 1. FC Slovácko on Saturday at 2 p.m. and then go to FK Pardubice on March 13 at 2:15 p.m. and to SK Slavia Praha on March 20 at 2 p.m.

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