U-BT Cluj-Napoca, disastrous second half in Croatia! Second straight defeat in the ABA League
Article by David Istrate – Published Saturday, October 25, 2025, 7:35 p.m. / Updated Saturday, October 25, 2025, 7:37 p.m.
U-BT Cluj-Napoca suffered another dramatic setback this season, being defeated 87-80 by KK Split, in the 4th round of the ABA League. The Romanian champion dominated the first half, but played extremely poorly in the second half of the match, making no less than 18 mistakes.
After the success in overtime with Umana Reyer Venice (103-102)U-BT Cluj-Napoca traveled to Croatia, on the shores of the Adriatic Sea, where they played against KK Split, a team with a rich record in the last century, but in a modest form at present.
After a dominant first half, U-BT Cluj-Napoca broke into the second half in Split
Given the unusual start time (1:00 p.m.), players from both camps needed the first quarter to settle down. The opening act was balanced and ended in a tie, but starting with the second sequence, the black and white took control and entered the locker room with an 11-point advantage: 47-36.
After the break, as in the last matches, U-BT did not find the way to the basket as easily, and the advantage was quickly dissipated. The “students” had more than half a quarter in which they did not score and the mistakes became more and more, to the displeasure of coach Mihai Silvășan, who did not hesitate to express his anger.
Led by an in-form Jacob Stephens, Split came back into the match, took the lead and managed the end better. After Iverson Molinar's injury, Cluj were left without an important offensive weapon and, in the end, the hosts won 87-80.
24 mistakes for the Romanian champion, 18 in the second half of the match
Stephens collected 30 points and 5 rebounds, Antonio Jordano stood out with 19 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists, and Leon Radosevic tallied 10 points.
On the other side, U-BT's leaders were Mitch Creek (17 points, 3 rebounds), Dusan Miletic (16 points, 12 rebounds), Daron Russell (10 points, 5 rebounds) and Iverson Molinar (8 points, 9 assists, 8 rebounds).
U-BT dominated the rebounding contest (43-26), had more blocks and assists and a better 3-point percentage, but she committed 24 mistakes, 13 more than her opponent, and had 18 less free throws (13-31).
Mihai Silvășan: “No one will give us victory, no one will give us gifts”
It's a very painful defeat for us, for sure. We played very well in the first half, but this is the Adriatic League and it is a hard lesson that we have to learn, that no one will give us victory, no one will give us gifts, no one will give up the fight.
It's disappointing that we had 18 turnovers in the second half out of a total of 24. I'm sure that was the key factor in today's defeat. We missed 18 possessions in the second half. That's the situation now, we have to move on. Another tough game awaits us on Tuesday, in Hamburg, also away.
We must learn from this experience, especially regarding the attitude we must have. We have to stick together because it's been a long period where we've played a lot of games away from home. This was our fifth away game out of six and Tuesday will be our sixth, but that's the schedule, we're not complaining, we just have to be stronger mentally and understand the importance of every moment in the game
– Mihai Silvășan, coach of U-BT Cluj-Napocaaccording to the official website
Following this result, U-BT reached a record of 1-2 in the current season of the ABA League. The black and whites have one more away trip on Tuesday, October 28, to Hamburg, after which they will return home for the duel with Igokea.
