Article by David Istrate – Published Wednesday, December 10, 2025 9:05 p.m. / Updated Wednesday, December 10, 2025 9:06 p.m.
In the 10th stage of the BKT EuroCup, U-BT Cluj-Napoca was defeated by Bahcesehir Istanbul, score 84-72, after a nightmare last quarter for the Romanian champion. The Black and Whites scored just 10 points in the decisive sequence and gave up 28, which resulted in their 5th loss of the season.
After the gala match with Partizan Belgradewhich took place on Sunday, December 7, Mihai Silvășan's students left for Istanbul on Monday morning for the confrontation with Bahcesehir. injured, Daron Russell and Jeffery Taylor stayed homewhile Karel Guzman had some problems with his visa and arrived later than his colleagues in the famous Turkish city.
Without two starters, U-BT Cluj-Napoca lasted 3 quarters, but collapsed in the decisive act
However, with Bahcesehir's surprising failure to Neptunas Klaipeda in mind, the black and whites were hoping for a positive result. The beginning of the match was not promising, but gradually Cluj entered the game, and the confrontation was balanced.
Trevion Williams gave the Transylvanians a headache, the recovery fight being dominated by the hosts. The situation changed in the 3rd quarter, managed very well by U-BT, after 7 consecutive points scored by captain Patrick Richard.
The visitors defended and rebounded better, took advantage on offense and, before the decisive act, led 62-56. A decisive nightmare sequence followed for the Romanian champion, who did not score at all for over 6 minutes.
Iverson Molinar and Trey Woodbury seemed to have no solutions, U-BT's offense was blocked and in the end Bahcesehir prevailed 84-72.
Leading the way for the win were Trevion Williams (22 points, 15 rebounds), Malachi Flynn (18 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists) and Tyler Cavanaugh (13 points).
On the other side, Mitch Creek (12 points, 5 rebounds), Nighael Ceaser (11 points, 11 rebounds) and Saulius Kulvietis (11 points) stood out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIQisZD-cg
Mihai Silvășan: “We simply didn't find the good throws, we lost balls”
After this result, U-BT Cluj-Napoca reached a 5-5 record in EuroCup group A, while Bahcesehir Istanbul has 7 wins and 3 losses.
First of all, congratulations to Bahcesehir. I think it was an interesting game and a close battle until the fourth quarter when we just didn't find the good throws, lost balls and didn't handle their aggressive defense well and it was 28-10 in the 4th quarter.
But this is basketball, you have to play consistently and well until the end, because obviously we played against a very good team with high expectations in this EuroCup season and one of the strongest teams in this competition, so we can't relax if we want to have a chance to win, we can't give so many offensive rebounds.
We have to learn from this and move forward. We have the next home game against Neptunas, and we all know what they can do. We saw in the last game they played here in Istanbul what they did and we have to be careful and focused on that game from now on
– Mihai Silvășan, coach of U-BT Cluj-Napocaaccording to the official website of the Black and Whites
