BC "Prometey" - BC "U-Bank Transylvania Cluj-Napoca" (Romania). December 14. 19:00. 7DAYS EuroCup. Group round. Group A. Tour 8. Riga (Latvia). "Arena Riga". Broadcast - "DIVISPORT BASKETBALL" YouTube channel.
In the penultimate match of the first round of the 7DAYS EuroCup group round, “Prometey” is playing with the only out of its 9 opponents, which it confronted in the official EuroCup tournaments before. It is the strongest Romanian club of the two previous seasons (in total 7 champion’s title), “U-Bank Transylvania Cluj-Napoca”.
Last season, the basketball leaders of both countries played in the second group round of the Champions League. The confrontation “Prometey” – “Cluj-Napoca” has its own story. The game should have happened on February 1 in Zaporizhzhia. However, because Ukrainian team got sick with coronavirus, the game was postponed to March 3 to Kyiv. But then, the hard circumstances related to the Russian military aggression against Ukraine got in the way of holding the match in any city of our country. The match took place in Czech Nimburk. There is no point to say that “Prometey” players could not fully concentrate on basketball. This was the main reason of the defeat of the best Ukrainian club’s (81:92), which after this match stated about its withdrawal from the tournament due to the developed circumstances. Regarding “Cluj”, Romanian club has reached the quarterfinal of the Champions League, where they lost with the score of 0:2 to the German “Ludwigsburg”, with whom “Prometey” crossed in the first group round of the tournament.
Looking back to the confrontation of “red and white” and “Cluj-Napoca” on March 3, it might be recalled that before this both rivals did not experienced defeats in the Group K of the Champions League. To the Wednesday’s match at “Arena Riga” they are approaching with the identical tournament indicators, but now, in the tournament of a higher status. However, both opponents have 4 losses in 7 matches now. Herewith, Romanian club quite unexpectedly but at the same time confidently in both score and a play level surpassed Spanish “Joventut” (98:82) in the previous tour. According to most indicators, “Cluj-Napoka” turned out to be stronger than formidable Spaniards: 36 rebounds against 26, 22 assists against 11, 50% accuracy of three-point shots (16 successful attempts out of 32) against 27%.
At a time, these figures say about necessary balance in lines as well as about considerable potential of “Prometey” opponent. The players from the previous season remained in both lines; in addition, they are again in leading positions. These are guards Patrick Richard and Karel Guzman, a center with Bosnian and Croatian passports Andrija Stipanovic and Serbian big forward Stefan Bircevic. This whole quartet looked great in the confrontation with “Joventut”. These players are perfectly supplemented with American small forward Victor Sanders, one more player with the same role Brazilian Leonardo Meindl and Bosnian guard Nemanja Gordic.
“Prometey” will host a very serious team under the heading of Romanian specialist Mihai Silvasan, who has already been working in the “Cluj” system for 6 years. Although there is no doubt that “Prometey” has all possibilities to take revenge for the March failure and, which is important, to break a two-match losing streak in the 7DAYS EuroCup and improve its tournament situation.
To follow the course of events in the match “Prometey” – “U-Bank Transylvania Cluj-Napoka” watch a video broadcast on December 14 on YouTube channel “DIVISPORT BASKETBALL” starting at 19:00.
