Cedevita Olimpija faces Budućnost VOLI in regional derby in 7DAYS EuroCup

The players of Cedevita Olimpija will travel to Podgorica on Tuesday, where they will face Budućnost VOLI in the fifth round of the group part of the 7DAYS EuroCup competition on Wednesday at 19.00. It will be possible to watch the live TV broadcast on Šport TV 1.

In the Montenegrin capital, Cedevita Olimpija will face Buducnost VOLI in the fifth round of the 7DAYS EuroCup group stage on Wednesday at 19.00 and try to break a series of defeats in the European Cup against last season’s regional league finalists. The Ljubljana team has two victories after four matches, and the Podgorica team has recorded three victories so far.

For Cedevita Olimpija, it has been a week of ups and downs. In the regional league, the selection of head coach Jurica Golemac recorded two victories in two matches, and in the 7DAYS EuroCup they lost to Ulm after two overtimes on Wednesday. The defeat against the Germans was the second in a row in the European competition for the Ljubljana team, and on Wednesday in the European Cup in Podgorica they will step on the floor for the last time before the break brought by the national team campaigns.

Buducnost suffered its first and so far only defeat in the 7DAYS EuroCup in the fourth, ie last round. On the road in Venice, Umana Reyer was better with 72:67. Dennis Seeley scored 18 points, while Justin Cobbs and Edin Atić both scored 12 points each. In the regional league, Budućnost is in the top half of the table after eight matches, and has six victories. After the defeat in the seventh round away to Mega Mozzart, the basketball players from Podgorica, led by Aleksandar Džikić, eliminated Zadar in the eighth round high, with 84:69. Vladimir Micov finished the game with 14 points and Jacob Wiley added 13 rebounds with 13 points.

The teams are old acquaintances from the regional competition, and at the same time the teams competed against each other last season in the second part of the 7DAYS EuroCup. Among other things, Cedevita Olimpija and Budućnost faced each other in the match that decided to qualify for the quarterfinals of the European Cup, and in Morača at that time Budućnost celebrated the victory with 79:66. Interestingly, the top scorer of the 2018 regional league champions was Melvin Ejim, who now wears a jersey with orange-green hues, scoring 20 points and collecting eight more rebounds.

Cedevita Olimpija and Budućnost have already competed once this season. In the Stožen Hall, the Podgorica team celebrated the victory in the fifth round of the regional league with 84:79. In the Dragons’ jersey, Jacob Pullen scored 26 points, five rebounds and five assists, while Jaka Blažič stopped at 16 points and nine rebounds. Cobbs, on the other hand, scored 23 points.

STATEMENTS AHEAD OF THE GAME:

Jurica Golemac, head coach of Cedevita Olimpija:
“Budućnost is still undefeated in Podgorica this season. It is a team that plays great basketball and we will face each other for the second time this season. We will definitely look for our options and we will not give up. We are going to Podgorica confident after a good match and victory against Mornar in the regional competition. We will do our best to suprise a favourite.”

Melvin Ejim, player of Cedevita Olimpija:
“We know it’s going to be a tough game. Budućnost plays really well at home, they’re a balanced team and know themselves really well. They play really good at this point, and they had a couple of big wins. It’s an opportunity for us to show who we are, to come out and to play our game, and if worry about ourselves and how we can be better as a team, and take control of the things that we can control, we’re going to be in a good position at the end of the game.”

7DAYS EUROCUP, GROUP B, ROUND 5

Morača (Podgorica, Montenegro), Wednesday, November 17, at 19.00:
CEDEVITA OLIMPIJA – BUDUĆNOST VOLI (live stream on Euroleague TV)

STANDINGS: