To The Pain - Alex English versus the KK Partizan - 4/8/26
Mar 26, 2015 12:51:09 GMT -6
Brazil, Seattle, and 1 more like this
Post by Portland on Mar 26, 2015 12:51:09 GMT -6
In the course of a long ABCA season and the rapid pace of 10-day sims, sometimes the league’s more interesting events pass by in a flash, getting our attention just briefly before we all move on to the next set of games. Here in the free agency period - before another sure-to-be-exciting ABCA season - I thought it might be fitting to take a look back at a very special evening on last year’s calendar: the night of April 8th, when Alex English of the Sonics eviscerated the KK Partizan and still ended up on the wrong end of the final score.
English of course needs no introduction: he is arguably the best player in the league and a key reason why the Sonics are seemingly unstoppable in the regular season. Alex had a stellar campaign again last year, averaging 30.8 points per contest in route to the league scoring title, capturing the league MVP award while making all league and the all-defensive first teams. The six-foot seven power forward from South Carolina is clearly still in his prime, and his statistical performances last season certainly illustrated it. He’s also an iron man, having not missed a game in three seasons.
On the night in question Alex and his teammates faced another team with almost as good a reputation: The Bad Boys of Belgrade, the KK Partizan – led by Sir Charles Barkley, who happens to also play power forward. In the December 31 matchup in Seattle between the two teams, English had gotten the better of the younger, less experienced Barkley by posting 27 points and 10 rebounds against Charles’ 17 points and paltry three boards. Now three and a half months later in Belgrade the two squared off again with Barkley no doubt eager to get revenge on English.
This time around Barks did indeed have a better night: 23 points, 7 boards, and 6 assists. Very solid. On the other end of the floor, however, school was in session. Alex English was pouring in buckets from all over the court and running the floor hard for 41 minutes of a highly-paced contest, trying to keep his team close against the younger home squad. Seattle fell behind in the second period. English continued to score, a man among boys. And at the half his team was nine points down despite Alex’s efforts. The teams kept pace in the second half, and even with English doing everything he could to turn the tables Belgrade ran the score out to a final 136-128 conclusion. Pete Maravich led KK with 31 points to go with Barkley's 23. Only one Sonic topped 20 points on the night, and you know who that was. Alex English finished with 67 points on 26-of-36 shooting, with four of those buckets coming from beyond the arc and 11-of-13 shooting from the charity stripe. He added nine rebounds, six assists, and three blocks. Amazingly he was -5 in plus/minus for the evening. The Sonics only got eight points in the game from their three centers and were dominated on the offensive glass, in large part sealing their doom.
When the two teams met in the ABCA finals later there was plenty of scoring action. Alex averaged over 34 points and ten boards per game in the six game series with a high of 45 points in a game five loss. His shoot percentage was over 50%. We know that it wasn’t quite enough as his team fell in six games to the champion KK Partizan. But Alex’s scoring outburst in April will unquestionably go down as one of the finest offensive performances in the history of the league.
