June 8, 2022- 2825 loyal supporters at Krešimir Ćosić Arena in Zadar saw their team win game four 61:59 (36:36) in this year's Croatian Basketball Championship Finals against Cedevita to make it 2 wins each. The championship will now be decided in the final game in Zagreb on Friday. 

The series has been quite a back and forth with Zadar surprising in Zagreb in the opener just to see Cibona come back with two straight wins. On Tuesday night the guests from the capital could have already crowned themselves but the defending champions managed to squeeze out just another close victory to stay alive.

Both sides played a defensive game and no team was able to pull away decisively. With only two minutes to play, the game was still tied at 58:58. Both sides could not convert their tries before the night's top scorer Thompson (15 points) was fouled. The Zadar center converted both his free throws for a 60:58 lead. Prkačin had a chance to tie the game for the guests again but missed his second free throw. When Thompson followed his example to make it 61:59, Cibona still had 17 seconds to tie or even win the game but Zadar's defense managed to hold on to the lead and the chance to defend the title.

The final and decisive game will be played at Dražen Petrović Basketball Center in Zagreb on Friday, June 10th, 2022 at 20:00.

Result by quarters: 16:17, 20:19, 13:9, 12:14

Referees: Radojković Josip, Kardum Luka, Hadžić Denis

Box score: https://fibalivestats.dcd.shared.geniussports.com/u/HKS/2097389/ 

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June 5, 2022 - Cibona Zagreb was able to conquer back their home-court advantage with tonight's win against the defending champions and now lead 2:1 in the best-of-five series - 62:67 (36:30).

Zadar had opened the series with a 70:77 win in Zagreb on Monday to put pressure on Cibona. The team from the capital managed to come back on Wednesday with a 77:73 win and returned the favor tonight. 

During the opening play, Carter failed to nail his dunk as the 4000 spectators at Krešimir Ćosić Arena in Zadar saw a slow start with both sides acting slightly nervous. It took almost 3 minutes before Thompson made a free throw to open the scoring. 

After finishing the first quarter with a slight lead (19:17), the hosts benefitted from Cibona center Branković getting into foul trouble early. Zadar pulled away to 34:24 within the first 5 minutes of the second quarter and, despite only scoring once again,  went into half-time with a 36:30 lead. 

During the second half, Okorn Gašper's team held Zadar to only 26 points and decided the game with a strong fourth quarter effort. Top scorers for the guests were Toni Nakić (16 points), Roko Prkačin (13) and Lovro Gnijdić (10).

Zadar coach Srđan Hellbich did not seem to have listened to his own words. After the defeat in game two, he had criticized himself for not adding any of his young players to the rotation, only to play the routine rotation again tonight. Zadar's top scorers were Thompson with 14, Drežnjak with 12, and Mavra with 11 points.

Both teams will meet again in Zadar on Tuesday, where Cibona may already win this year's title. 

Result by quarters: 19:17, 17:13, 11:14, 15:23

Referees: Hordov Tomislav, Jurčević Josip, Gracin Franko

Box-score: https://fibalivestats.dcd.shared.geniussports.com/u/HKS/2097388/

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated sports section. 

May 26, 2021 - Game 1 of the Croatian basketball finals was played tonight in Zadar. Split was without any chance at an 81:53 (48:21) loss to Zadar. 

It has been 13 years since KK Split had a shot to win the national basketball championship trophy. They succeeded with the help of veteran Dino Rađa who had put on the yellow jersey before he retired his career. 

Three people remember those days very well. Srđan Subotić, Roko Leni Ukić, and Mateo Kedžo all were part of the last Split team to make it to the finals and win eventually. Today Subotić is the assistant coach, Kedžo is the team captain and Ukić returned to the team mid-season to have another shot at the title. They beat Cibona Zagreb in two straight games and one day more rest than the hosts.

FOTO: KK ZADAR / ŠIME ZELIĆ

In the Dalmatian derby, it is their opponent KK Zadar, however, who played the more convincing season. The two-time Croatian champion, ABA League Champion, and eight-time Croatian cup winner finished the regular season at the top and has a homecourt advantage in the Best-Of-Five finals. They start the series with two home games before the games go to Split for up to two games. Should no team have three victories by then, the final game will be played in Zadar again.

Burak Canboy

Zadar surprisingly needed 3 games to beat Gorica to make it to the finals but started into the game well tonight. Coach Veljko Mršić's team was very focused in the first quarter and outscored the Yellows 17:7. The guest team from Split did not look good in the aerial battles and could not hit the open shots. Zadar had several offensive rebounds for additional tries and even stopped Split's last two attacks with blocks. 

Burak Canboy

It got worse for Split Coach Mile Karakaš who had to watch his team being outscored in the first 4 minutes of the second quarter by 13:3. Zadar was up 30:9 before Ukić showed a sign of life by nailing a 3 point shot. Mesiček added another one to get to 30:15.

Burak Canboy

Any hope that came up for Split did not last long. Zadar dominated the game at both ends of the court and a dunk from Onuaku to make the 48:21 just 2:28 into the second half pretty much ended the game already. The hosts increased their lead to up to 31 points at the beginning of the final quarter before letting the reigns a bit looser for the last minutes. 

Burak Canboy

Split will need to come back with some kind of response in the game on Friday if they want to stay in this battle for their second Croatian national title.

The top scorer of the game was Zadar's captain Dominik Mavra with 17 points. Chineanu Michael Onuaku scored a double-double with 10 rebounds and 12 points. Split's Blaž Mesiček was the only guest player to score double-digits (14 points).

Referees: Tomislav Hordov, Denis Hadžić, Josip Jurčević

Box score: https://fibalivestats.dcd.shared.geniussports.com/u/HKS/1884506/ 

Croatian Basketball Championship Finals schedule: 

Game 2: KK Zadar - KK Split will be played on May 28, 2021, in Zadar at "Krešimir Ćosić" hall, Splitska 3, starting at 18:00 with a live broadcast at Arena Sport.

Game 3: KK Split - KK Zadar will be played on May 31, 2021, in Split, at the "Split" Basketball Hall, Ulica slobode 16 b, starting at 21:00, with a live broadcast at the Arena Sport HRT.

Game 4: KK Split - KK Zadar will be played on June 2, 2021, in Split, at the "Split" Basketball Hall, Ulica slobode 16 b

Game 5: KK Zadar - KK Split will be played on June 5, 2021 in Zadar, at "Krešimir Ćosić" hall, Splitska 3

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May 22, 2021 - On Thursday, KK Split managed to stay in the ABA League. Less than 24 hours later, they qualified for the Croatian basketball championship finals. 

In the second game of the semifinals, Split defeated Cibona 93:71 in Zagreb and thus went 2-0 in the series. They will play against the winner of Zadar and Gorica which is currently 1-1.

After the first quarter, Cibona had a 28:27 advantage, but at halftime, KK Split was up by 7. Split's excellent game continued in the third quarter when they led by 19, and in the fourth, the advantage only grew to confirm a spot in the finals.

Roko-Leni Ukić scored 18 points as the most efficient KK Split player, and Marko Luković added 16 points. Darko Planinić led Cibona with 16 points.

After 13 years, Split entered the Croatian championship finals, and the Yellows recorded their seventh victory against Cibona this season.

In the first semifinal game, Split celebrated convincingly 95-80.

Because of the tight schedule and Split's ABA League relegation game on Thursday, there was tension between Cibona and Split. KK Split wanted to move the date of the second semifinal match against Cibona to May 22, to which the Croatian Basketball Federation agreed, but they also needed Cibona's consent. The Zagreb club ultimately refused. 

"I think two things were important in today's game. One is that we didn't give ourselves any excuse given what we've been going through the last few days and to realize that today was the biggest chance to win," the KK Split coach Mile Karakas said and added that Cibona did not surprise them with their game.

"After 6:0, the reality was that Cibona would come out as strong as possible at the beginning. When we rejected that first and second blow, we knew that they would fall and that our quality would come forward," added Karakas, who is thrilled to be in KK Split's first Croatian final after 13 long years.

KK Split was welcomed home to Gripe with a flare spectacle which you can see below. 

Source: HRT, Gol.hr

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