Seagulls postponed their summer vacation in Kotka

Helsinki Seagulls scraped an 82–71 victory in Kotka on Sunday and continues his season in the men’s Korisliiga beyond Easter.

The Loki were facing a must-win in the Karhuvuori sports hall, as the home team KTP-Basket led the quarter-final series with 3–1 matches.

The beginning of the match has brought challenges for the Seagulls, but on Sunday the visiting team started with a bang. This was to be expected when the Seagulls captain René Rougeau had threatened about this in his heated interview after the foursome.

“It wasn’t necessary to look for motivation much. We had a really good fighting spirit, and this was exactly the kind of match you need with your back against the wall”, the seagulls’ head coach Timo Saukkola told Kotka by phone.

Fivefold Finnish champion Rougeau, 40, attracted attention after the foursome when he criticized the referees’ decision not to blow the whistle for a foul that would have resulted in three decisive free throws.

Short videos and screenshots quickly spread on social media, which clearly showed that Aaron Carver hit the situation Osku Heinonen throwing hand.

Yle interviewed the top referee coach of the Basketball Association about it Johannes Sarekoskea and published on Friday the thingin which he admitted a mistake by the judges.

Sarekoski also reminded that the current rules do not allow checking the situations in question on video.

Easter the starting points were not the easiest possible for the Seagulls. One of the four U.S. confirmations of the Helsinki natives Christian Keeling suffers from a lower limb injury according to head coach Saukkola and had to be a spectator.

Rougeau (13 points), Kahron Ross (14 p) yes Jalen Henry (18 p) made their basic dune, but the win needed a lift to the opening five Ricky Waxlaxin top game.

Waxlax scored 18 points, made three assists and grabbed as many rebounds. It was easy for head coach Saukkolan to give the hottest name of the day more than 35 minutes of playing time.

Series the sixth match will take place in the Töölö race hall on Tuesday. The Seagulls reduced their rotation to seven men in practice, so there are questions about the recovery.

Keeling’s situation is monitored day by day, although the heavy spring was already known to the coaching staff the previous summer.

“In my role, I take care of everyone’s survival, but that’s why these guys are here. We knew in the summer that we have to be able to play big minutes,” Saukkola said.

Joensuu Kataja Basket, Salon Vilpas and Uusikaupunki’s Korihait have already secured their place in the medal games.

The last semi-final team will face Kataja in the next stage, which surprised Karhu Basket, which was ranked second as a team from the lower continuation series.

The club with a better ranking gets home advantage in the semi-finals, i.e. it goes to either KTP-Basket or Seagulls.

Correction at 20:55: Corrected the final result of the match.