Cibona open home slate with Convincing 100-84 win over Zabok

The Wolves dictated the pace from start to finish and, despite a brilliant showing from Dino Cinac on the other side, cruised to a convincing 100-84 win in front of their home fans at the Dražen Petrović Center — their second straight win to open the new season.

Cibona beat Zabok 100-84 on Wednesday at the Dražen Petrović Center in a Round 2 SuperSport Premier League clash in front of 250 fans. It was the Wolves' first home game of the season, and the win moved them to 2-0 following their opening-night victory at Alkar.

Head coach Ivan Rudež started Rickey McGill, Antonio Sikirić, Lovro Mazalin, Vincent Trevon Mitchell and Khalif Battle. For Zabok, coach Damir Milačić went with Toni Torbarina, Dino Cinac, Noa Svoboda, Manuel Dundović and Ante Perkušić in his opening five.

After a brief early lead for the visitors, Cibona took control and never let go. The Wolves won the first quarter 23-17 and still led at the half, 50-37. They held a double-digit margin through the third (22-21, 72-58), then closed out the fourth 28-26 — with Zabok cutting into the gap late through Ante Perkušić — to seal the 100-84 win.

Khalif Battle led Cibona with 21 points (8-of-14 from the field, 3-of-7 from three), with Vincent Trevon Mitchell adding 17 on 8-of-14 shooting. Lovro Mazalin chipped in 14 points on a perfect 7-of-7 from the field, and Vigo Bart added 10. Cibona's bench also had the edge, outscoring Zabok's reserves 33-21.

Cibona head coach Ivan Rudež said after the game: "First off, I want to thank the fans who came out on a Wednesday night, even though there weren't many of them, and I'd like to use this chance to publicly invite them to come support us at our next home game, against Galatasaray. Today's game was far from pretty or sharp on our end, but we got the basic job done, and that's the win. Within that win, we were looking for a few guys to find their rhythm — we fell a bit short on that after the Alkar game, and it's still far from how we want to look. The win is fine, we managed minutes across the roster, and now we move on."

"It's a good way to start the season at home, you know, on a win," said Cibona's Tre Mitchell. "I think that game for us just kind of helps us get our rhythm, helps us kind of gel a little bit more as a team and realize where we have a little bit of defensive lapses and where we can be a little careless with the ball on offense, but it's really just a building point for us. It's a start, you know, we're nowhere close to where we need to be because we got a lot of big dogs coming up, you know, people that are really gonna play hard and some really talented players, so it was just a good opportunity for us to start the season."

On the other side, the loss didn't stop Dino Cinac from turning in a performance to remember — 32 points on a sizzling 13-of-19 shooting (68.4%), including 3-of-5 from three, making him the best individual player on the floor. Toni Torbarina (13 points, 3-of-8 from three) and Luka Babić (10 points) also stood out for the visitors, while Ante Perkušić (9 points) was one of Zabok's most active players down the stretch — a stretch in which Borna Katanović scored the game's final basket for Cibona.

Zabok head coach Damir Milačić: "Cibona is simply too strong for us right now, especially on their own floor. They took us seriously, even though we were close a few times. We couldn't solve the rebounding problem, and I can't say I'm all that satisfied. We scored 84 points — once we start allowing fewer, we'll be a team to take seriously."

Zabok's Toni Torbarina: "A mixed game for us, good and bad. We woke up a bit in the second half, raised our energy and cut into the deficit. But their offensive rebounds cost us too much, and that was the difference."

With the win in their first home game of the season, Cibona improved to 2-0 to open the 2026/27 campaign, in which the Zagreb club — the reigning Croatian champions — are competing on three fronts: the SuperSport Premier League, the AdmiralBet ABA League, and, for the first time in ten years, the Basketball Champions League.