Buducnost Retains Montenegrin Title

Once again, for an astounding eighth-straight time, KK Buducnost Voli Podgorica has won the Montenegrin Erste Liga Championship! They defeated KK Mornar Basket Bar 3-1 in the Finals series. The deciding Game 4 ended with a score of 76-85 in favor of the blue shirts. The team has been dominating the Montenegrin league for almost a decade now. Since 2007 Buducnost has failed to raise the gold trophy over their heads in 2008. Beyond local borders, the organization has also been making a splash in regional competition. Buducnost was a beast during the Adriatic League’s regular season and finished as the regular season champs. Unfortunately, they fell to Serbian club Mega Leks in the playoffs, but nonetheless their regular season run cannot go unnoticed.

This series was an interesting one. Despite its resolution in four games, the finals series was deemed close by experts. Mornar Bar held a pristine 24-0 regular season in the Erste Liga, while Buducnost was away on international competitions. They also showed that the games in the series were competitive and that Buducnost would not steamroll over them like an afterthought. Healthy competition is good, especially when a domestic rivalry can be formed. This bodes well for the local competition. Buducnost cannot take them lightly moving forward. For now, however, they are the champions and can enjoy the fruits of their successful title defense.

Buducnost led early on and set up a nine-point advantage to start the game and even expanded it to 12 points at the end of the first half. Mornar rallied in the second half and even narrowed down the lead to 72-73 in the fourth period. Just as things were heating up, as if from nowhere, Vasilje Bacovic knocks down two triples to lift Buducnost to a commanding position once again. The reserve stepped up when his needed him most. Bojan Subotic and Julius Jenkins led the eventual champions with 16 points apiece. Lamont Jones paced Mornar with his 18 points.

For now, Buducnost retains its foothold as the most dominant team in the Erste Liga. Then again, they should watch their backs as you can expect Mornar to attack the 2016-17 season with a vengeance.