Dragons exit the 7DAYS EuroCup with a defeat

In the Round 6 of the Top 16 stage in the 7DAYS EuroCup, the basketball players of Cedevita Olimpija lost to Podgorica’s Budućnost VOLI with 66:79.

Cedevita Olimpija said goodbye to the EuroCup in the sixth round of the second stage of the competition with a 66:79 defeat against Budućnost VOLI. In the 2020/21 season, the team from Stožice recorded 10 victories and six defeats on the European scene.

The weight of the decisive match was felt from the tip-off. In the first half of the match, the teams showed fighting and uncompromising performance, but also a tactically disciplined game, which gave Jurica Golemec’s protégés a lead of 40:38 at halftime. In the first two quarters, the Ljubljana team managed to control the rebounding department, one of the opponents’ strongest weapons, but they missed the points of the players from the bench.

In the second part of the match, the winds in the Morača Sports Center turned in favor of the home team and took the Montenegrin crew to the quarterfinals of the 7DAYS EuroCup. Ljubljana team’s rivals collected a total of 45 rebounds, 14 more than the team from the Slovenian capital, and down the stretch, they made the important three-point attempts. After the third quarter, the Dragons were only one point behind, but the basketball players of Budućnost VOLI won the last period with a partial result of 21:9, securing the 13-point win.

The leading scorer of the Ljubljana team was captain Jaka Blažič with 18 points. 12 points and six rebounds came from Jarrod Jones, followed by Kendrick Perry with 11 points and five assists. Edo Murić and Mikael Hopkins (6 rebounds) scored eight points each, and the best scorer from the bench was Rion Brown, who finished the game with seven points.

Cedevita Olimpija returns to action on Thursday, when the rejuvenated team of the Dragons will face Helios Suns in the third round of the NKBM League. On Saturday, the Dragon team will travel to Laktaši, where Igokea will face them in the 21st round of the ABA League.

STATEMENTS AFTER THE GAME

Jurica Golemac, Head Coach of KK Cedevita Olimpija:
“Congratulations of Budućnost VOLI. We did not adjust to the criteria of referees and the style of basketball that was played. This cost us the win. We should’ve focused on ourselves instead of other things. We have to adjust to things that we can not control. We lacked energy in the final minutes. A lot of our main players got into foul trouble which made it hard for us from the start.”

Kendrick Perry, Player of KK Cedevita Olimpija:
“It should’ve taken a 40-minute game but down the stretch we let the refs get in our head a little bit. We allowed the 15 offensive rebounds. You can not expect to win a game when stakes are this high when you allow your opponents that many boards. We can make all the excuses we want but they just wanted it a little bit more than us. When we needed the most we got a little bit out of ourselves. We didn’t have the energy we needed. It starts with me and it trickles down to everybody else. I got to look myself in the mirror. It is a long season ahead. We have to chuck this one up. Unfortunately, it came to an end but there is still more work to do.”

7DAYS EUROCUP, ROUND 6, TOP 16 STAGE

Morača Sports Center (Podgorica, Montenegro), Tuesday, March 9:
BUDUĆNOST VOLI – CEDEVITA OLIMPIJA 79:66 (17:19, 21:21, 20:17, 21:9)
Cedevita Olimpija: Radović, Perry 11 (5 assists), Hopkins 8 (6 rebounds), Murić 8, Rupnik 2, Blažič 18, Brown 7, Hodžić, Jones 12 (6 rebounds), Ščuka, Marinković, Dimec.

STATS
GALLERY