Helsinki Seagulls withstood Karhu Basket’s Kiri and won the men’s Korisliiga’s fourth final game with last-minute free throws. The first championship in the club’s history is on hold for the Helsinki team on Saturday.
SpongeBob Forsberg,
Antti-Jussi Sipilä
The Seagulls from Helsinki already took their third win in the men’s Korisliiga final series, when they defeated the reigning champion Karhu Basket 85-79 in front of the home crowd in Töölö Kisahalli.
The championship is on Saturday in Kauhajoki with a break for the Seagulls, who lead the match series 3–1. The championship comes off with four wins.
The Seagulls have never won the Korisliiga championship. It’s already been 25 years since the Helsinki club’s last championship: Torpan Pojat lifted the Panther Statue in 1998.
The Seagulls’ top scorer of the night Okko Järven According to this, the championship is determined by the game that the team has played in the first, second and fourth finals.
– Maybe I felt a little comfortable in the triples. It’s hard to score against our defense: we just have to focus. Fortunately, we have Rene Rougeau like leaders in the locker room. We can keep the heads of the younger ones in the match so that there is no feeling of comfort, even though we won the first matches pretty well.
Järvi grabbed an offensive rebound in the final moments and gave the Seagulls an 83–79 lead.
– I’ve had maybe two rebounds per game this season. You just have to get the missing points from somewhere. I knew I just had to give it my all. Both teams are so good that it doesn’t matter how the basket comes.
Töölö’s thriller
The previous three meetings of the final series had been decided by clear scores: the first two 70–54 and 84–64 for the Seagulls and the third 96–72 for Karhu Basket. The fourth encounter was a thriller until the end.
The beginning of the match went in the Seagulls command. The Helsinki team led 66–57 at the end of three quarters, but Kauhajoki came close in the final set and temporarily passed.
Jeffrey Carroll brought the Seagulls to a 79-79 free throw. Lassi Nikkarinen moved the team to an 81-79 lead with two free throws with less than a minute left in the game.
Okko Järvi drove to the basket and increased the lead to 83–79 with nine seconds left, and hit Loppulukemat free throws.
Järvi was the most effective of the Seagulls with 15 points. They reached 14 points from Kauhajoki Cameron Jones and Severi Kaukiainen.
Seagulls hero Järvi praised his team’s mental edge when Karhu Basket took the lead at the end of the match.
– Perhaps it showed that there are not only first-timers here, said Järvi, who was promoted to Kauhajoki from Pantteripatsa in the spring of 2019.
Kaukiainen believes in the rise
Kaukiainen regretted the team’s weak start.
– During the first 20 minutes, we made some stupid mistakes on the defensive end. We got into a hole that we had to climb out of. It was a great climb and we fought for the win until the end, but the win came down to the basics at the end.
According to Kaukiainen, Kauhajoki should focus on own end rebounds and throwing accuracy in attack.
– Yes, with these fins you can win three games in a row, which is required for the championship. Everything is possible. Confidence won’t disappear anywhere, let’s go to Kauhajoki to narrow the series, Kaukiainen said.