“That's how it turned out this time”

Missing two starters, Jeffery Taylor and Mitch CreekU-BT Cluj-Napoca had a very complicated mission on Tuesday, December 30, in BTarena. Slask Wroclaw, who won their round match 94-93, came to Romania eager to get their second win of the season against the Transylvanians.

U-BT Cluj-Napoca, spectacular comeback in the decisive act, on the penultimate day of the year

In the first half, Stefan Dordevic won the duel with Cluj's pivots, while Issuf Sanon and Noah Kirkwood took advantage of the waist to exploit the opposing defense. The successes of the Poles forced the hosts to play more positional attack, not allowing them to use their main weapon: the game in transition.

The matchup remained balanced, but when Slask built an 8-point lead in the decisive act, U-BT's chances of victory seemed slimmer. Captain Patrick Richard signaled the return with a basket from distance and the “students” attacked the visitors' basket with force.

The last minutes were dramatic. Darron “Fatts” Russell tied it with a 4-point play, but Slask held on and led a few more times. Finally, after a miss by the students of Ainars Bagatskis, the Romanian champion went on the counterattack and the same Fatts brought the tie for U-BT, 92-92, with 13 seconds left.

Slask's coach immediately asked for a time-out, at which point Mihai Silvășan made a risky decision. The home technician told his students to foul and try to target Kirkwood.

Mihai Silvășan's strategy that brought success to U-BT: “We wanted to decide the game ourselves”

Normally, in situations like this, there are two options. Some coaches prefer to rely on their team's defense and hope they don't get fouled, which would lead to overtime. Instead, other coaches choose to foul and send opponents to the free throw line, then have the last attack and decide the game on offense. Silvășan chose the second option.

“That was the strategy. We decided to foul to have the game in our hands. We wanted to do it at Kirkwood, but if we couldn't do it at him, we would do it at anyone's. The score was high and a lot had been scored. If we defended, there was a maximum of overtime, so we wanted to have the last throw and decide the game ourselves, hoping that they would at least miss a free throw“, said “Silva” for GSP.ro.

After the restart, the ball did go to Kirkwood, who broke free in the first half, taking advantage of Nighael Ceaser's drop. Trey Woodbury rushed and fouled the Canadian basketball player, who reached the free throw line.

Fortunately for the home team, Kirkwood missed both free throws and the ball found its way to Russell. He used his speed, penetrated and shot from the left side of the board, but missed.

Dusan Miletic was on the move, recovered the ball and scored a slam-dunkone and a half seconds before the end. The guests failed to score again, and U-BT Cluj-Napoca prevailed 94-92 and reached a 7-5 record in Group A of the EuroCup.

Daron Russell finished the game with 30 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists and a +37 efficiency rating, while Dusan Miletic had 19 points, 14 rebounds, 5 assists and a +35 efficiency rating.

Mihai Silvășan, at the end of the year: “It's totally different to play in the ABA and EuroCup”

“This time it worked out,” said Silvășan about the decision taken at the last minute. U-BT ended 2025 with 61 official matches, 24 of which were played in the 2025-2026 season. The Black and Whites are 16-8 this season.

A good year, where we played quarter-finals in the EuroCup and won the championship. We didn't manage to win the Romanian Cup like in 2024, but I think we did a good job. In the season that is now underway, we are in both competitions in the objective, that is, in the fight for the play-offs.

I think it was an extremely important year in terms of participating in the ABA League and the fact that they accepted us there. It's totally different to play in ABA and EuroCup. You have to have a different approach to training and matches.

What we wanted and are trying to do every day is to have a different mentality and improve this aspect. The best teams, in addition to the individual value of their players, also manage to have a consistency in doing things well both in attack and defense

– Mihai Silvășan, at the end of the year

Ranking of group A in the EuroCup

EuroCup group A standings after 12 rounds/Photo: capture euroleaguebasketball.net