Adriatic League Round 25 Recap
The Adriatic League playoff picture is now coming into focus. The Top 4 teams are pretty much locked in. One of the semifinal match-ups is already clear. Top ranked Buducnost will be facing Mega Leks in the semis. The final seeding between Crvena Zvezda Telekom Beograd and KK Cedevita Zagreb has yet to be decided, but in the end both teams are headed on a collision course in the semifinals.
Sutjeska vs. Buducnost 92-91 (OT)
It was an interesting upset loss for the league’s top team, but they were in a position to take it easy, something they surprisingly did not do. Clearly it was a sign that they did not want to rest on their laurels too comfortably, especially with the playoffs just around the corner.
League leader Buducnost lost 92-91 in overtime to KK Sutjeska. With the regular season championship in the bag, the game had no bearing on the Playoff race. Still, despite their secure position and Buducnost pushed Sutjeska to the limit and even forced an extra period. Sutjeska trailed Buducnost in the first quarter, but fired back in the second frame. After the break Sutjeska pulled away briefly, but wound up ahead by only two points going to the fourth quarter.
Nemanja Vranjes led Sutjeska with his game-high 28 points. Radosav Spasojevic produced a solid double-double performance with 20 points and 13 rebounds. Julius Jenkins was the top scorer for Buducnost with his 22 points. Omar-Sharif Cook and Bojan Subotic each added 18 points for Buducnost.
Sutjeska may go home with the moral victory in this one, but it will be Buducnost that will be moving on to play in the next round of competition.
Round 25 was closed out with two games.
BC Partizan came up with an impressive 82-61 win over KK Cedevita Zagreb. The win improves their record to 12-13, and moves them up to fifth place in the league. Mega Leks is at a comfortable 16-9 and out of reach in their Top 4 seat locked up. The loss for Cedevita, however, drops them to third place in the standings and they are now one full game behind Red Star.
Cibona vs. Crvena Zvezda, 83-94
Crvena Zvezda closed out Round 25 with some much needed momentum. They came to Zagreb and defeated Cibona on its home turf. Red Star came into the game swinging and got off to one of their hot starts. After the first period Red Star was able to establish a 17-24 lead over their hosts.
Despite Cibona being able to knock down more threes in this game, Crvena Zvezda crashed the boards more aggressively and took control of the tempo from there.
Cibona cut into the lead in the second quarter, but after the halftime break it was all Red Star, all the way and they went on to cruise to a relatively easy win.
KK Zadar suffered an upset loss to BC Igokea, 77-73. Metalac managed to get its 10th win of the season after defeating Union Olimpija, 74-61. Krka Novo Mesto crushed a complacent Mega Leks, 74-57. The game was not critical and Mega Leks had the luxury of resting some of its players and exploring some new strategies.
)