Cedevita Olimpija hosts Frutti Extra Bursaspor in sold out Stožice

Two teams that have faced each other four times since November 2020, Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana and Frutti Extra Bursaspor, will engage at Stozice Arena in their biggest head-to-head clash yet with a place in the semifinals on the line. Stožice Arena will be sold out for the first time in over a decade!

This quarterfinals clash figures to be a high-scoring affair. There are several factors that point to that and one of them is how each team’s offense and defense has performed this season. Cedevita Olimpija ranks third in scoring (87.3 ppg.) and Bursaspor is eighth (82.8 ppg.). Cedevita is second-best at two-point accuracy (57.6%) and these two sides are among the best three-point shooting teams with Bursaspor ranking third (39.2%) and Cedevita Olimpija fourth (38.0%). The latter also made the second most triples (10.8 per game).

Both teams have also had porous defenses. No team forces fewer turnovers than Cedevita Olimpija (11.2 topg.) and both sides rank among the bottom six this season in points allowed with Cedevita Olimpija allowing 83.6 points and Bursa the third-most (84.7 ppg.). Bursaspor also allows the second-highest two-point shooting percentage (57.4%) and three-point percentage (39.7%) by opponents.

Another factor is how they played each other earlier this season and the last. After Cedevita Olimpija swept Bursaspor last season by averaging 100.5 points in two games, the two teams split double-digit home wins during this regular season. Bursaspor won 93-84 at home in early November and the last time they met in February, Cedevita Olimpija beat Bursaspor 103-86 at Arena Stozice.

That win marked the start of Cedevita Olimpija’s current nine-game winning streak. Cedevita Olimpija shot 30 for 38 on two-pointers in that game and had eight different scorers with Yogi Ferrell leading the way with 19 points and Jacob Pullen netting 17. Each scorer had at least 6 points, and none of those eight missed more than 2 two-point attempts. But Bursaspor was without Andrew Andrews in that game and John Holland joined the team a month later. And those two were the top protagonists for Bursaspor in its overtime win in Belgrade last week. Defensive-ace Holland had 17 points on 4-for-5 three-point shooting and Andrews was the eighthfinals MVP after flirting with a triple-double, collecting 24 points, 10 assists and 8 rebounds.

Only three players in the quarterfinals averaged more points this season than Cedevita Olimpija team captain Jaka Blazic (15.7 ppg.) and among the quarterfinalists, Cedevita Olimpija point guard Yogi Ferrell is fifth (14.9 ppg.), Bursaspor’s Andrews is sixth (14.3 ppg.) and Cedevita Olimpija guard Jacob Pullen is eighth (13.9 ppg.).

This game will feature five of the top nine scorers since the second half of the regular season started. In games since Round 10, no player has scored more points than Andrews, a total of 210 points for an average of 23.3. His teammates Onuralp Bitim and Derek Needham are fifth and sixth on that list, followed by Cedevita Olimpija’s Ferrell and Blazic.

Needham also ranks fourth this season with 2.6 triples per game and Ferrell is fifth with the same average. Pullen is seventh making 2.5 triples per game, and Blazic is ninth with 2.3 on average this season.

These two sides have pretty good knowledge of each other and not just because of recent meetings. For starters, head coaches Dusan Alimpijevic and Jurica Golemac have gone against one another in the Adriatic League in the past, and Cedevita Olimpija center Alen Omic played under Alimpijevic at Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade. However, no two players are more familiar with each other’s tendencies than Pullen and Needham, who were backcourt mates at Moran Bar in Montenegro the past two seasons.

Cedevita Olimpija forward Zoran Dragic was a teammate of then-teenage Onuralp Bitim at Anadolu Efes Istanbul. Cedevita Olimpija big man Zach Auguste was a teammate of Bursaspor center Ayberk Olmaz at Galatasaray Istanbul for two seasons. In addition, multiple other players have faced each other in domestic competitions in recent years, which all makes his clash even more intriguing.

STATEMENTS AHEAD OF THE GAME:

Jurica Golemac, head coach of Cedevita Olimpija:
“Unexpectedly, we have another home game in the playoffs of the 7DAYS EuroCup. All of us who know the Frutti Extra Bursapor team knew that Partizan has a difficult task ahead of them in the Round 16 because we know how our opponents have been playing for the last two months. By playing throughout the season, we managed to win a home game in the quarterfinals of the European Cup. With that, we have a little more chance to advance to the next round, but that certainly means nothing. I have a lot of respect for the Frutti Extra Bursapor team. I am good friends with their head coach, who is definitely one of the best young coaches in Europe. He has experience in leading the Euroleague, now doing a great job in the Turkish National Championship and in the 7DAYS EuroCup. Our victory in the match is not self-evident. There are definitely no favorites in this match. Bursaspor plays very smart basketball, we are probably talking about the best team in terms of the team play in the whole competition. The way the players play and know exactly what tasks they have, in summary, they are a really quality team.”

Jaka Blažič, captain of Cedevita Olimpija:
“On Wednesday, we have a spectacle in front of the packed stands of the Arena Stožice. My team and I have earned this with performances in recent months. We are extremely happy to be offered the opportunity to fight for the spot in the semifinals of the 7DAYS EuroCup. Our opponent is the exceptional team Frutti Extra Bursaspor, which, in my opinion, is currently playing the best basketball in the European Cup next to us. It is certainly not an easy task ahead of us. We have our strengths and our goals, which we will try to achieve in this match. Everyone in the locker room is already a bit impatient before this mid-match.”

7DAYS EUROCUP, QUARTERFINALS

Stožice Arena (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Wednesday, April 27, at 20.00:
CEDEVITA OLIMPIJA – FRUTTI EXTRA BURSASPOR