The Borac basketball team will kick off their campaign in the Liga 4 for the BiH championship with a match against Leotar, scheduled for Sunday at 6 p.m. in Laktaši.
This season, the Banja Luka team has struggled to play on their home court, as the “Borik” arena has often been unavailable, making them once again a host on neutral ground. Borac’s head coach, Marko Šćekić, is well acquainted with Leotar—he defeated them in the first half of the season, although the team from Trebinje won on their home court just a month ago. What pleases Šćekić is that, for the first time in a while, he finally has his full squad available.
“We’ve been training in Laktaši for several days now, where the match will be played. The first game of Liga 4 is very important—every game is, since each loss could cost us a lot. I’m glad that on Thursday, for the first time in a long time, we were finally complete at training, and Srđan Bošković has returned. I hope for a good game against Leotar and our victory,” Šćekić stated.
Borac finished the regular season with a 16-10 record and earned runner-up titles in the last two seasons. Leotar ended with a 15-11 record.
“We’ll try to reach the semifinals, though it won’t be easy, since other teams have strengthened their squads. Our biggest ‘reinforcement’ is that we are now a complete team. I believe we’re stronger defensively and more physically prepared than Leotar. Energy, aggressiveness, and toughness are on our side,” Šćekić added.
Borac captain Srđan Gavrić is expecting a tough defensive challenge against Leotar’s best player, Marko Rikalo, and their new addition, Bret Thompson from Mostar.
“We’re facing a very important match against a familiar opponent. They are a highly experienced team made up entirely of ten domestic players, which is quite rare, and they’ve also brought in the league’s top scorer, Bret Thompson, who will add offensive depth to their already strong roster. We’re glad to finally have the whole team together—we play an aggressive defensive style, but we had issues because we lacked enough players in training, which caused performance drops in games. We played poorly against Leotar last time, especially on defense, and that’s a warning about what not to do. The first match could determine the course of the championship, so we must be cautious. I’ve played against Thompson—he’s very tricky to guard, but we have enough players to handle both him and Rikalo. We don’t know how well he’s integrated into their team, and that could be a double-edged sword. He might fit in perfectly or cause disruption. He can’t be guarded one-on-one—it must be a team effort,” said Gavrić.
Competition system changes
Earlier this week, the Basketball Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina changed the competition format. Instead of the planned six-team League for the Champion with ten rounds and no playoffs, the new format introduces a Liga 4 with four teams. These four teams will be joined in the playoff semifinals by Igokea and Bosna, who had scheduling conflicts due to their commitments in the ABA and ABA 2 leagues.
In preparation for the semifinals, Bosna has strengthened its roster with the addition of Adnan Arslanagić from Orlovik.
In the other first-round game, Široki will face Sloboda on Saturday at 7 p.m.
Source: RTRS
