U-Banca Transilvania with the first chance against Manresa
U-BT Cluj-Napoca will host Manresa tomorrow evening in a game that counts for Round 7 of the 2025-26 EuroCup season. Because the BT Arena is occupied on Wednesday with a different event, the game will be played in Turda (around 35 km from Cluj) in a smaller, 3200-seat capacity arena.
After the first 6 rounds, the two teams are currently tied in the standings with a 3-3 record. U-BT had a few very close games so far: a 1-point defeat in Poland against Slask Wroclaw and a 1-point overtime win against Venezia at home. They also had a 5-point at Neptunas, and in the last round, the black and white team suffered a 6-point defeat at home against Cedevita Ljubljana. Starting from this season, the team from Cluj will play in the ABA League, and they will join the Romanian domestic league only in the playoff stage. After 5 rounds, U-BT has 3 wins in the ABA League after they defeated Borac on Saturday, 97-76.
Point guard Daron Russell is the top scorer of U-BT after the first 6 games of the EuroCup season with an average of 24 ppg, and he also leads the team in assists with 6.7 apg (he also has 4 turnovers/game). The other main contributors so far are Mitch Creek (15.8 ppg), Iverson Molinar (15.4 ppg) and center Dusan Miletic (13.7 ppg and 8.2 rpg).
On the other side, Manresa also lost its last EuroCup game, 100-87 at Neptunas, and they are on a two-game losing streak. In the ACB League, they also struggle a bit with a 2-4 record, and on Saturday, they suffered a heavy 19-point defeat in Murcia.
The Romanian team has a better chance of winning this game, especially because Manresa has travelled a lot in the last week in Lithuania to face Neptunas, then back to UCAM Murcia, and they are not at their best.
Gratian Cormos
Image credit: EuroCup
