Cibona and Cedevita make Adriatic League progress

The pre-Christmas Adriatic League action is underway as four games took place on Tuesday to open Round 14, with more to follow on Christmas Eve and one on Christmas day. A busy holiday period will see Round 15 start on December 26th, but the focus tonight was on the four clashes, with all games but one ending in favour of the home team.

The big story is the continued rise of last year’s finalists Cibona Zagreb and Cedevita Zagreb. Last season’s ABA champs Cibona has recovered from a rocky start to their title defence and has now won the last five games on the bounce, including today’s 74-77 road win against Union Olimpija Ljubljana. Considering Union Olimpija has been in solid form this season, it was a show of strength for Cibona to head to the clubs’ backyard and come away with a win that makes the teams equal on 8-6 in the standings.

Cibona rode its luck at times, heading into the halftime break with the score heavily in Union Olimpija’s favour at 50-35. However, a huge second half backed by 16 points apiece from Ivan Siriscevic and Jure Lalic through the game saw the Croatians take the game.

Last season’s beaten Adriatic League finalists Cedevita Zagreb are also continuing their good form in the campaign as they look to go one better this term. The club has won its last three games and went big on Tuesday to smash Krka Novo Mesto 100-75 in the Croatian capital. Krka took an early lead, but after Cedevita took its first advantage after three minutes (5-4) the hosts never looked back and held the lead for the rest of the game. The team led by double figures for much of the contest and were paced by a stunning performance from Roko-Leni Ukic with 20 points, 7 rebounds, and 8 assists, a game that could land him MVP for this round.

In the other games of the night Partizan NIS Belgrade defeated Szolnoki Olaj 62-55 in Serbia, and Igokea downed Zadar 71-56 on home hardwood.