The hosts fired on all cylinders en route to a convincing win, led by Andrija Stipanovic, Adam Mokoka and Patrick Richard.
Cluj comfortably defeats Buducnost, 89-74



U-BT Cluj-Napoca came away with a big 89-74 win at home to Buducnost VOLI Podgorica in Round 4 of the 2023-24 BKT EuroCup Regular Season on Wednesday night, which improved its record to 3-1 and saw the visitors drop to 2-2. The home side took the lead for good midway through the second quarter, as it responded to last week's loss at Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse in the perfect way possible. Buducnost, meanwhile, has now lost both of its road games this season.
The 36-year-old Andrija Stipanovic paced Cluj with a team-high 18 points, with Adam Mokoka (16 points), Patrick Richard (15) and Jarell Eddie (13) also joining him in double figures. For Buducnost, birthday boy McKinley Wright scored a game-high 21 points. Jacorey Williams chipped in with 16 points and Yoan Makoundou added 14.
The first quarter got off to a good start for Buducnost, as Wright scored 8 of the team's first 10 points as it opened a 6-10 lead. Brandon Paul drained a three not long after to open a 6-point gap, 9-15, but Cluj fought back through D.J. Seeley and Stipanovic, who had 6 points apiece in the first quarter. Mokoka's corner triple in the final seconds tied the game at 25-25 after 10 minutes.
Things remained pretty tight at the start of the second quarter, but a Richard triple led to a big roar from the home crowd inside BT-Arena, 35-31. Another triple by Eddie, 38-34, meant Cluj had gone an impressive 7-of-13 from deep, before Emanuel Cate's block on Aleksa Ilic resulted in another burst of noise from the home supporters. At halftime, Cluj took a 48-43 lead into the break.
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Wright kept Buducnost within distance of Cluj, scoring a pretty layup to move to 17 points, 55-48, but the visitors then lost their head coach after two quick technical fouls were called against Petar Mijovic. The first was after the refs blew for a moving screen by Williams, and the second was after a foot violation was called against Cluj's Stipanovic. While Buducnost started to suffer, Cluj kept moving forward and ended up closing the third quarter 10 points ahead, 68-58.
Mokoka ended up opening what was a game-high 15-point lead by draining a triple less than a couple of minutes into the final period, 73-58. Buducnost tried to respond, but Cluj just kept putting points on the board. Perhaps the final dagger in the visitors' heart came midway through the fourth quarter, when Richard beat the shot-clock buzzer to hit a three-pointer, making it 82-67 in the process. In the end, Cluj was able to see its 89-74 win over the line with relative ease.