Partizan, Cibona headed to Adriatic Final Four

Thanks to key wins during Round 25 of the Adriatic league regular season, BC Partizan NiS Beograd (Serbia) and KK Cibona VIP Zagreb (Croatia) have booked their seats to the Final Four. They join Red Star and Cedevita, who have previously secured their slots last week. Cibona had an easy and expected win over Bosnian club HKK Siroki Primorka, 73-84. Siroki is 13th in the rankings and are not contending for a post-season spot. On the other hand, Partizan came away with a close, four-point win over a fellow final four contender in KK Buducnost Voli Podgorica (Montenegro), 61-65.

Buducnost was still reeling from their loss last week to second-ranked Cedevita. The loss placed them in a critical must-win scenario which must have clearly added a weight on their shoulders. Had they won against Partizan, it would have put some pressure on their opponents to come away with a win against Cedevita next week. Alas, the chips fell where they did and defending champions Buducnost find themselves on the outside looking in. Partizan’s victory allowed them to surge into the number three spot.

Buducnost started with a strong opening and even led the visiting team by three early on. Partizan made their push in the second frame and did not look back. The Montenegrin club leaned a bit too much on their outside shooting which was at a poor 6-25 compared to Partizan’s more controlled and accurate 8-17 from downtown.

Partizan were led by the diverse stat line of Bogdan Bogdanovic, who finished the game with 16 points, six rebounds, five assists and was able to knock down 4 of 8 of his shots from beyond the arc. Joffrey Lauvergne added 14 points and six rebounds of his own, while Sasha Pavlovic made the most of his insertion into the starting lineup and came away with 13 points as well.

Buducnost was led by Nikola Ivanovic, 16 points and six rebounds. He did most of his damage from the free-throw line as he made all eight of his attempts. Cedomir Vitkovac ended the game with a double-double performance off the bench with 11 points and 12 boards to his name. Jeleel Akindele was the only other player from Buducnost to manage to score in double figures. He finished with 11 points and six rebounds.