2017–18 Junior ABA League

The 2017–18 Junior ABA League is the inaugural season of the Junior ABA League with ten men's under-19 teams from Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Macedonia participating in it. Teams are the junior selections of the 2017–18 ABA League First Division teams.

Junior ABA League
Season	2017–18
Dates	November 24–26, 2017 (Group stage) January 27–28, 2018[1][2] (Final Four)
Games played	24
Teams	10
Regular season
Season MVP	Goga Bitadze
Finals
Champions	Mega Bemax U19 (1st title)
Runners-up	Crvena zvezda U19
Third place	Igokea U19
Fourth place	Budućnost VOLI U19
2018–19 → All statistics correct as of January 28, 2018.

Competition

Ten under-19 teams are participating at the 2017–18 Junior ABA League season – Budućnost VOLI, Cedevita, Cibona, Crvena zvezda mts, Igokea, Mega Bemax, Mornar, MZT Skopje Aerodrom, Partizan NIS and Petrol Olimpija - will be divided into two semi-final Groups.^[3]

In Group A in Belgrade, Serbia are Crvena zvezda mts, Cibona, Mega Bemax, Mornar and MZT Skopje Aerodrom. In Group B in Zagreb, Croatia are Budućnost VOLI, Cedevita, Igokea, Partizan NIS and Petrol Olimpija.

In the group stage, all teams will face each other team within a group in a round-robin system. The two best placed teams of each group will advance to the final tournament, which will take place in Laktaši. At the final tournament, the teams will play two games – the semifinal and the final or third place game. The winner of the final tournament will become the 2017–18 ABA Junior Tournament Champion.

Teams

Team allocation

Regular season
Crvena zvezda mts U19	Budućnost VOLI U19	Cedevita U19	Igokea U19
Partizan NIS U19	Mornar U19	Petrol Olimpija U19
Mega Bemax U19	Cibona U19	MZT Skopje Aerodrom U19

Locations and personnel

Budućnost

Cedevita

Cibona

Crvena zvezda

Igokea

Mega

Mornar

MZT

Olimpija

Partizan

Location of teams in the 2017–18 Junior ABA League

Team	Home city	Head coach	Captain
Budućnost VOLI U19	Podgorica	Petar Mijović
Cedevita U19	Zagreb	Marko Trninić
Cibona U19	Zagreb	Ante Samac
Crvena zvezda mts U19	Belgrade	Bojan Đerić	Zoran Paunović
Igokea U19	Aleksandrovac	Žarko Milaković	Dalibor Ilić
Mega Bemax U19	Sremska Mitrovica	Vlada Vukoičić	Andrija Marjanović
Mornar U19	Bar	Aleksandar Mitrović
MZT Skopje Aerodrom U19	Skopje	Nebojša Đuković
Partizan NIS U19	Belgrade	Aleksandar Bućan	Marko Pecarski
Petrol Olimpija U19	Ljubljana	Lojze Šiško

Group stage

Group A

Venue: Basket City Hall,^[4] Belgrade, Serbia

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Crvena zvezda mts U19	4	4	0	376	273	+103	8	Advance to Final Four
2	Mega Bemax U19	4	3	1	358	265	+93	7
3	Cibona U19	4	2	2	339	326	+13	6
4	MZT Skopje Aerodrom U19	4	1	3	295	356	−61	5
5	Mornar U19	4	0	4	263	411	−148	4

Source: Junior ABA League

24 November 2017 (Round 1)
Crvena zvezda mts U19		74–60		Mega Bemax U19
Mornar U19		82–86		MZT Skopje Aerodrom U19
25 November 2017 (Round 2 and Round 3)
Crvena zvezda mts U19		113–62		Mornar U19
MZT Skopje Aerodrom U19		66–91		Cibona U19
Mornar U19		46–117		Mega Bemax U19
Cibona U19		75–94		Crvena zvezda mts U19
26 November 2017 (Round 4 and Round 5)
Mega Bemax U19		88–67		MZT Skopje Aerodrom U19
Mornar U19		73–95		Cibona U19
MZT Skopje Aerodrom U19		76–95		Crvena zvezda mts U19
Cibona U19		78–93		Mega Bemax U19

Group B

Venue: Dom košarke Cedevita,^[4] Zagreb, Croatia

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Igokea U19	4	4	0	329	303	+26	8	Advance to Final Four
2	Budućnost VOLI U19	4	2	2	318	327	−9	6
3	Cedevita U19	4	2	2	357	317	+40	6
4	Partizan NIS U19	4	1	3	313	327	−14	5
5	Petrol Olimpija U19	4	1	3	302	345	−43	5

Source: Junior ABA League

24 November 2017 (Round 1)
Cedevita U19		77–80		Igokea U19
Budućnost VOLI U19		65–87		Partizan NIS U19
25 November 2017 (Round 2 and Round 3)
Cedevita U19		81–89		Budućnost VOLI U19
Partizan NIS U19		69–84		Petrol Olimpija U19
Budućnost VOLI U19		75–80		Igokea U19
Petrol Olimpija U19		75–108		Cedevita U19
26 November 2017 (Round 4 and Round 5)
Igokea U19		87–84		Partizan NIS U19
Budućnost VOLI U19		89–76		Petrol Olimpija U19
Partizan NIS U19		73–91		Cedevita U19
Igokea U19		76–67		Petrol Olimpija U19

Final Four

Venue: Laktaši Sports Hall, Laktaši, Bosnia and Herzegovina

	Semifinals				Final
	27 January
	Crvena zvezda U19	63
					28 January
	Budućnost VOLI U19	57
					Crvena zvezda U19	60
	27 January
					Mega Bemax U19	82
	Igokea U19	70
	Mega Bemax U19	73
					Third place
					28 January
					Budućnost VOLI U19	74
					Igokea U19	77

Source: Junior Adriatic League

Semifinals

Crvena zvezda U19 v Budućnost VOLI U19

27 January 2018 12:30

Report

Crvena zvezda U19	63–57	Budućnost VOLI U19
Scoring by quarter: 13–14, 17–16, 18–18, 15–9
Pts: Tomašević 22 Rebs: Paunović 12 Asts: Paunović 4		Pts: Slavković 17 Rebs: Raičković 17 Asts: Raičković 3

Laktaši Sports Hall, Laktaši

Igokea U19 v Mega Bemax U19

27 January 2018 15:00

Report

Igokea U19	70–73	Mega Bemax U19
Scoring by quarter: 14–8, 19–15, 19–18, 18–32
Pts: Živković 17 Rebs: Ilić 11 Asts: Janković 8		Pts: Bitadze 17 Rebs: Bitadze 14 Asts: Kuzmanović 2

Laktaši Sports Hall, Laktaši

Third place

28 January 2018 14:30

Report

Budućnost VOLI U19	74–77	Igokea U19
Scoring by quarter: 23–24, 22–14, 17–16, 12–23
Pts: Slavković 30 Rebs: Kočić 10 Asts: Kočić 4		Pts: Ilić 21 Rebs: Ilić 11 Asts: Janković 6

Laktaši Sports Hall, Laktaši

Final

28 January 2018 17:00

Report

Crvena zvezda U19	60–82	Mega Bemax U19
Scoring by quarter: 24–20, 13–15, 9–22, 14–25
Pts: Paunović 14 Rebs: Popović 9 Asts: Paunović 3		Pts: Marjanović 25 Rebs: Bitadze 8 Asts: Jovičić 4

Laktaši Sports Hall, Laktaši

Crvena zvezda

Mega Bemax

Starters: Pts Reb Ast PG 10 Lazar Vasić 10 4 2 G 9 Arijan Lakić 7 5 5 G/F 11 Zoran Paunović 14 4 3 F 7 Nemanja Popović 11 9 0 F/C 13 Bojan Tomašević 13 5 0 Reserves: PG 4 Vukašin Mašić 0 0 1 SF 5 Ranko Simović DNP F 6 Luka Jovanović 0 0 0 SF 8 Uroš Isailović 0 0 0 C 12 Veljko Radaković 4 0 0 C 14 Miloš Ćojbašić DNP SG 15 Lazar Živanović 3 2 0 Head coach: Bojan Đerić

2017–18 Junior ABA League Champions Mega Bemax U19 1st title MVP Goga Bitadze[5]

Starters: Pts Reb Ast PG 12 Mihailo Jovičić 10 1 4 SG 44 Altin Islamović 1 2 0 SF 9 Andrija Marjanović 25 4 2 PF 8 Bogdan Nedeljković 16 7 3 C 15 Goga Bitadze 17 8 1 Reserves: PG 0 Vladan Musić 0 0 0 C 6 Mateja Jovanović 2 1 0 SF 7 Marko Kljajević 2 1 0 G/F 13 Luka Cerovina 0 5 1 F/C 14 Novak Mišković 2 0 0 PG 20 Pavle Kuzmanović 7 3 2 C 33 Amar Mehić 0 1 0 Head coach: Vlada Vukoičić

Awards

Pos.	Player	Team	Ref.
MVP
C	Goga Bitadze	Mega Bemax U19	[6]
Ideal Starting Five
PG	Andrija Slavković	Budućnost VOLI U19	[6]
SG	Zoran Paunović	Crvena zvezda U19
SF	Andrija Marjanović	Mega Bemax U19
PF	Dalibor Ilić	Igokea U19
C	Goga Bitadze	Mega Bemax U19

See also

• 2017–18 ABA League First Division