Feni started their title defense with a tough win against Ulcinj

Feni started the defense of their champioship in the EUROHOLD Balkan League with a win. Emil Rajkovic′s boys defeated KK Ulcinj 53:59 away from home, but didn′t play up to their full potential, due to the many issues. Jarrid Frye and Slobodan Mihajlovski didn′t play for the team due to injuries.   Ulcinj′s young team started the game motivated, regardless of the fact that they had the reigning BIBL champion on the other side. 2:34 after tip-off Ulcinj had the lead for the first time - 6:4 after a three by Milos Djurisic. In the next minutes neither team could break ahead of the other, but finally it was Ulcinj who led with a bigger difference - 14:8 with 2:43 left in the quarter. After 10 minutes of play the home side had a 2-point advantage - 17:15.
 
Feni was still trailing in the opening minutes of the second quarter, but finally managed to get the lead after a three by Marjan Gjurov - 17:20 with 7:11 left until halftime. The home side was scoreless for more than 4 minutes after the beginning of the second period, as Feni increased their lead to 7 points (17:24), before finally there was a basket by Paul Kirkpatrick for 19:24. However Emil Rajkovic′s squad kept on pushing hard for the rest of the second quarter and deservedly led at the break by 8 points - 24:32.

Right after halftime both teams exchanged baskets for 26:34, before Marjan Gjurov gave his time a double-digit advantage for the first time tonight - 26:36 with 7:01 on the clock. Ulcinj responded with a 6:0 run, which made the gap just 4 points (32:36), before Feni gave their answer - 8 unanswered points and a 12-point lead (32:44). Ulcinj couldn′t get close to the leaders, as Feni maintained their lead throghout the rest of the third quarter, to settle things at 38:49 after 30 minutes of basketball.
 
In the first minutes of the fourth quarter Feni extended their lead to 16 points - 38:54, the biggest margin so far in the game. Boban Medenica scored the next 5 poins for Ulcinj, making it 43:53 with 6:20 left to play. Neither team could do much on offense in the next minutes, before Ulcinj finally managed to cut the deficit down to single digits - 50:57 with 1:35 left. However the home side didn′t have power for anything more, and Feni got the 53:59 win, as they finished in style - Vladimir Brchkov made a dunk, sealing the final score.   Sasa Ocokoljic was the only Feni player to score more than 10 points - he had 15 plus 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Marjan Gjurov added 9 points, while Marko Simonovski and Dusan Knezevic scored 8 a piece. Tremaine Ford made his debut for Feni with 4 points and 5 rebounds in 11 minutes of play.   Milan Latkovic and Dragomir Marojevic scored 11 points each in Ulcinj′s loss tonight. Milos Djurisic finished the game with 10 points and 7 rebounds.   Despite the loss, Ulcinj outrebounded their opposition, grabbing 42 rebounds against 32 for Feni. The defending champions made turned the ball over 22 times, while the Montenegrin side had "only" 17 turnovers.