Oradea defeated BCM U Pitești 98:92 in Division A on Friday, keeping the leaders clear at the summit. The home side moved ahead after twenty-eight games with twenty-three wins, while their visitors remain sixth with sixteen victories and twelve defeats.
And here's the thing — we had tipped this one for the hosts at sixty-seven percent confidence, and the result proved us right. Oradea didn't cruise, though. They had to work for every point, especially in the closing stages when Pitești refused to fold.
The visitors came into the game on mixed form. Their last outing before this trip was a narrow ninety:eighty-six win against Sibiu, but before that they had lost three straight to the same side in May. Another team in the same position might have crumbled under that weight.
To be fair, Oradea's own recent record tells a similar story. They beat Freiburg 93:67 and Municipal Galați 101:74, but had also suffered a 96:98 defeat to Salon Vilpasi Vikings and a 95:87 loss to AEK Larnaca. Consistency has been the challenge all season, and this was no exception.
By then, the table gap remained at twenty-eight points between first and sixth. The leaders extended their advantage, but only just. A nine-point margin after twenty-eight matches is comfortable, but not comfortable enough to rest on.
Pitești's run of defeats against stronger opposition continues. They had previously lost 78:83 to Rapid Bucharest in May, and this result keeps them firmly in the middle of the pack. The gap to the top four is still closing, but slowly.
