After Teod (lost to MZT 68:50) and Sutjeska (beat Rabotnički 71:58), the first match in the new season of the NLB ABA2 league will also be played by Podgorica Bemax - Dragan Radović's team will host Džoker from Sombor tonight (21) in their hall.
Podgorica has been a regular participant in the second-ranked regional competition for years, it played in the semi-finals twice, and the last time was last season, when it was eliminated by Vojvodina. This season, the people of Podgorica enter the competition very young, the average team is around 20 years old, and before the new season there were a lot of changes in the playing staff.
Milutin Đukanović, Filip Andušić, Marko Kljajević (just moved to Džoker), Ognjen Čarapić, Danilo Ivanović, Viktor Vujisić, Marko Kljajević, Vjačeslav Petrov, Brendon Slaj, Lazar Vukčević and Dejlen Kunc are no longer in the team. On the other hand, Joshua Scott, Jack Golke, Mihailo Musikic, Pavle Đurišić, Balša Zivanović, Vasilije Milović, Alex Adetokunbo and Anthony Smith arrived.
"I believe that we started preparations for the new season on time. The fact is that compared to last season, we have a lot of new players, because 11 players left the club and it certainly took time for all the new players to fit in. That is exactly why we had a large number of preparatory games and I think we are ready to welcome the start of the new season", Podgorica coach Dragan Radović said in the announcement of the match.
Last week, Joker agreed to be a participant in the NLB ABA2 league, after Vršac canceled his participation in this competition. Željko Lukajić, who won the AdmiralBet ABA League with Hemofarm in 2005, is sitting on the bench of the team from Sombor.
"They have quality, coach Lukajić is a big name, and among others there is also Marko Kljajević, our best player from last season, so even though they are a young club, they have serious ambitions. We will take them seriously and do our best to be at a high level level and to register a victory," said Radović.
Apart from Džoker, Podgorica will also play against Pelister and Široki in group C. Two teams from the group advance to the next stage. Last night, Pelister was better than Široki at home - 74:72.
"Each game carries much more weight considering that only the first two teams from each group pass and form the Top 8 stage, which starts already in January. It is wonderful that we open the season at home. We expect a demanding game in which we want the first victory, in a hopefully nice environment," said basketball player Nikola Žižić from Podgorica.
The team from Sombor surprisingly got the chance to play in the regional competition. The president of Džoker is Branislav Jokić, the father of Denver's basketball player, Nikola, and the management consists of Jokić's brothers - Strahinja and Nemanja.
"It is a surprise in itself that we received an invitation to play in the ABA 2 league, but I am very glad that it is so. We did not manage to collect adequate data about the Podgorica team in such a short time, but I hope that regardless of everything, we will manage to let's present the club and the city in the best possible way in this competition," said Džoker's coach, Željko Lukajić.
Joker made an interesting team this summer, whose goal was to win a place in the NLB ABA2 league next season through the Basketball League of Serbia (KLS). That's why Stefan Simić came, who was the MVP of KLS last season in the Vršac jersey, and who is in the second part of the 2021/2022 season. played for Sutjeska. But the performance in ABA2 came earlier than planned...
"We are a little surprised that we are playing at all, but we are very happy and motivated. I believe we can show a lot. We don't have much time to prepare for the game, and we have a very difficult away game ahead of us. We will do our best to start the competition with a victory, which would mean a lot to us even before the start of the domestic league," said Simić.
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