Cibona's players in front of their arena (photo by Glubus.hr)
In it’s first Euroleague qualification game Cibona was able to win Cholet (France) by 77:70 (39:40) thanks to it’s second half defensive effort.
Cibona was paced by off-season acquisitions SG Antwain Barbour (16 points) and PG Demonte Harper (13 points) while Croatian NT forward Damjan Rudez added 11 points to go along with 6 boards.
“We expected a hard game because we are a completely new team. In the beginning, it was hard but we played much better after the halftime break. Especially on the defensive end. I think it was the key to our victory. Obviously, we would like to play Buducnost in the next round because Lietuvos Rytas would have the homecourt advantage.” – head coach Josip Vrankovic (source: Euroleague.net)
On Saturday Cibona will face tough Lietuvos Rytas team which was able to eliminate Buducnost Podgorica (Montenegro) with 83:64 victory.
