Joventut Badalona too strong for Cholet
The 2025-26 Basketball Champions League season started yesterday, and the favourites confirmed their status as there were no surprise results in these first games.
In Badalona, in the Pavelló Olimpic in front of approximately 3800 fans, Joventut started it’s BCL journey against Cholet. It was a highly anticipated game, as it marked the return of superstar Ricky Rubio to Joventut in European competitions, where he excelled at the beginning of his career as a teenager. In 2006, Rubio won the FIBA EuroChallenge while wearing the green and black as a 16-year-old rookie, while in 2008, he also won the EuroCup (then ULEB Cup) with Badalona.
With the team that Joventut assembled for this season, the Catalan fans hope that at the end of the season, Ricky Rubio will add another continental trophy to his resume and to the club’s trophy cabinet. Coach Daniel Miret has a team with proven veterans who have played at the highest level and won many trophies in their careers, including Ante Tomic, Adam Hanga, Sam Dekker, Guillem Vives, and, of course, Ricky Rubio. The addition of Cameron Hunt this summer can be huge, as the American shooting guard averaged 13.7 ppg for Manresa last season so he becomes another good scoring option for Badalona.
In yesterday’s game, Joventut proved that it is one of the main favourites of this year’s BCL by dominating Cholet from the start. The game started with an 8-0 run and the advantage kept increasing, reaching 23 points in the second quarter. At the start of the 3rd quarter, Cholet managed to reduce the difference to 11 points, but they never got any closer, and the game finished with a 91-73 win for the hosts.
Cameron Hunt and Ante Tomic scored 14 points each, Sam Dekker added 13, and Ludde Hakanson had 12 points. For the French side, Gerald Ayayi had 14 points, Jamuni McNeace had 12, and Nathan De Sousa finished with 10 points.
Imre Halasz
Photo credit: Diario AS
