A chase for second spot still open in last round

The senior team of Cedevita Olimpija will travel to Wrocław, Poland on Monday, where the Dragons will face Śląsk on Tuesday at 19:00 in the Round 18 matchup of the BKT EuroCup regular season, fighting for an important win in the race for second place in Group A. Live television coverage of the game will be available on Šport TV 1.

Ahead of the Cedevita Olimpija senior team is the final round of the BKT EuroCup regular season. Head coach Zvezdan Mitrović’s squad will visit Śląsk in Wrocław on Tuesday at 19:00, aiming to record their twelfth win of the group stage. The final round will also determine the final standings in both groups, and consequently the pairings for the first round of the playoffs.

In Group A, where Cedevita Olimpija competes in the 2025/26 season, the only position already secured before the final round is first place. Hapoel Jerusalem will finish at the top of the standings regardless of the outcome of their final game. The Slovenian champions have an opportunity in the final round to climb to second place and secure direct qualification to the quarterfinals, but not everything will be in their hands.

The Dragons are tied in the number of wins with Turkey’s Bahçeşehir, who hold the advantage in head-to-head results against Cedevita Olimpija. One win behind the Ljubljana side are Manresa and Venezia—Manresa holds the head-to-head advantage over the Dragons, while Umana Reyer Venezia does not.

After Tuesday’s game in Wrocław, the final standings will depend on the outcome of Wednesday’s games. If Cedevita Olimpija wins, Bahçeşehir would need to lose at Neptūnas on Wednesday for the Dragons to move up to second place. Manresa will visit Hamburg, while Venezia will host Hapoel.

TV BROADCAST:

Live television coverage of the Round 18 BKT EuroCup game against Śląsk will be available on Šport TV 1. Studio coverage will begin at 18:15.

PRE-GAME STATEMENTS:

“Śląsk is an extremely talented offensive team. Our opponents defeated Bahçeşehir twice this season and have also been very dominant in the Polish domestic league. They play without pressure, which certainly works in their favor. It is clear that we will be without the injured Thomas Kennedy, who was first injured in the game against Ilirija and then aggravated the injury against Hamburg. Our young center Cameron Houindo has already returned to the court after injury, but he was with the U18 team at the EuroLeague tournament in Ulm. We are preparing for the game according to our usual plan. Although the timing is somewhat inconvenient and it would make sense from a competition standpoint for decisive classification games to be played simultaneously, we will take the court on Tuesday with a clear goal—to go for the win,” said Cedevita Olimpija head coach Zvezdan Mitrović before departing for Wrocław.

“We are certainly facing a demanding game, and we are entering it motivated to record an important win in the fight for our position in the standings. With their win over Bahçeşehir in the previous round, Śląsk proved that they are a very high-quality and dangerous team. We are heading to Wrocław with one goal—we want to win the final regular season game,” said Rok Radović before departing for Poland.

GAME PREVIEW:

After a weekend without games in the regional league, which the Dragons concluded the previous weekend, the Ljubljana team used Friday and Saturday for refreshment and recovery, and on Sunday the team reconvened at Hala Tivoli and began preparations for Tuesday’s matchup. Thomas Kennedy will not play on Tuesday in Wrocław—an examination after returning from Hamburg revealed a more severe ankle sprain, which he originally suffered in the regional league game against Ilirija, and he will be sidelined for a longer period, meaning he will also miss the cup game against Ilirija.

Thursday’s 88:74 win in Hamburg gave the Ljubljana side much-needed confidence ahead of the end of the regular season, and with their eleventh win of the season, Cedevita Olimpija surpassed their regular season win total from 2024/25. On Tuesday in Wrocław, they will attempt to write a new chapter in the club’s EuroCup history—since the competition came under EuroLeague Basketball organization, they have never recorded 12 regular season wins.

Cedevita Olimpija will chase direct qualification to the quarterfinals against Śląsk, who demonstrated their quality in Round 17. The team from Poland’s third-largest city defeated Bahçeşehir 82:80 in Istanbul after an exciting finish, recording their fifth win of the regular season. Prior to that, they had suffered eight consecutive defeats, the first of which was handed to them by Cedevita Olimpija on December 4 in Stožice, when the scoreboard showed 108:74 in favor of the Slovenian champions. Śląsk is also the top team in the Polish domestic league, holding a record of 13 wins and five losses after 18 games. In their most recent domestic league game, they lost to GTK (84:85), but before that they had recorded six consecutive wins.

Śląsk’s most dangerous player in the 2025/26 EuroCup season is Canadian Kadre Gray, who is averaging 16.1 points, 4.9 assists, and 2.4 rebounds per game. In the most recent game against Bahçeşehir, he recorded 19 points, 10 assists, and four rebounds. It was his second consecutive double-double, after posting 22 points and 10 assists against Hamburg in the previous round.

BKT EUROCUP, REGULAR SEASON, ROUND 18

Orbita Hall (Wrocław, Poland), Tuesday, February 10, at 19:00:
ŚLĄSK WROCŁAW – CEDEVITA OLIMPIJA (Live on Šport TV 1)

STANDINGS

LOOKING AHEAD:

Cedevita Olimpija will begin the playoffs in March—before that, they still have the Slovenian Cup finals ahead. On Monday, the Dragons will play their final home game before the national team break, as Perspektiva Ilirija visits Stožice at 18:00 for the second leg of the Spar Cup quarterfinals. The Dragons hold a six-point advantage from the first game in Tivoli. Admission to the arena will be free for all spectators.