LAKTASI (Bosnia and Herzegovina) - If Day 1 of the 2026 edition of the Youth Basketball Champions League was all about domination, with three out of the four games ending with blowouts, Day 2 started in a much more competitive fashion, with surprise package KK Borac Banja Luka uprooting ERA Nymburk to give themselves a shot at reaching the Semi-Finals.
The champs Rytas gave us the only blowout of the day against EWE Baskets Oldenburg, with both of the day's final two contests ultra-competitive until the final minutes of each game.
Here are the Day 2 results:
KK Borac Banja Luka vs. ERA Nymburk: 75-68 (rewatch the game here)
EWE Oldenburg Baskets vs. Rytas Vilnius: 59-105 (rewatch the game here)
Porsche BBA Ludwigsburg vs. BC Sabah: 61-72 (rewatch the game here)
Spartak Office Shoes vs. Tofas Bursa: 75-69 (rewatch the game here)
#1 Borac are not to be underestimated
Local team KK Borac Banja Luka only entered the competition as a last-minute stand-in for Bnei Herzliya, who were unable to travel. Any idea that they were just here to take part was expunged within the first seven minutes of the game against Nymburk.
The Czech club took the lead early in the game, but with 3:31 on the clock in the first quarter, the impressive Sergej Gvozdenac splashed a three-ball to give Borac BL their first lead.
From there, the game would be a ding-dong battle with 11 lead changes.
Borac led the game for the best part of 21 minutes and dominated on the interior with 52 points in the paint. They also enjoyed 32 points from their bench, whilst Nymburk's bench only contributed 6 points.
Danilo Smiljanic led the game in scoring with 24 points on 71 percent shooting, all of them coming from two-point range.
He was well-supported by Srdjan Kurtovic with 12 points and 9 rebounds, with Gvozdenac also flirting with a double-double on 10 points and 7 rebounds.
Up next for the likely lads from Banja Luka is a winner-takes-all with Coretec Basketball Academy for a Semi-Finals berth that looked entirely unlikely before today's game.
#2 Message received from Rytas Vilnius
Rytas Vilnius have sat atop the YBCL throne for two straight seasons now, and just in case anyone thought that one generation of Rytas talent passing through to the next level would mean that their reign of dominance in this competition is over, they turned up in their first game of this year's competition and sent a very clear message.
They may have a lot of new faces, but the champions are still very much the team to beat.
Rytas led this game for 39 minutes of the 40, and by the time a Jonas Trivokas layup in transition pushed the score to 19-6 with 5:12 on the clock, the game as a competitive event was over.
Rytas put up 32 points in the first quarter, and Oldenburg just couldn't live with the tempo and execution of their Lithuanian opponents.
Trivokas shot 50 percent from deep, on 10 attempts, and ended the game with 23 points.
He was closely followed by Gabrielius Krivas, who dominated in the paint for 20 points and 5 rebounds.
The driving force, however, for this Rytas team was point guard Gabrielius Buivydas. He controlled the tempo and set the table for his entire team, ending the game with a 13-point and 11-assist double-double.
2009-born Djordje Klaric was the only real source of Oldenburg's resistance. The German U16 international hit tough shot after tough shot against Rytas suffocating defense, ending the game with 22 points and 4 rebounds.
Rytas will face Galatasaray next and will surely be starting to feel justifiably confident about reaching the Semi-Finals again.
#3 Sabah have arrived
BC Sabah had a torrid welcome to the YBCL in their first game against Igokea.
They played like the level was such a shock to the system that they still had half a foot on the team bus in the car park.
The second game couldn't have been more different for the Azerbaijani champions. After a fiercely contested win over YBCL stalwarts Ludwigsburg, Sabah can now say that they have fully arrived in this competition.
Ludwigsburg have arrived without two key players in Kenan Youdom and Lars Danziger, who are away with the Germany U18 National Team currently.
Despite that, it was the team in yellow that started strongest. The impressive, Netherlands international Yanu Slingerland drove to the bucket and scored plus the foul with 4:33 to go in the first quarter. When he completed the three-point play by making the free throw, Ludwigsburg was up 11-6 and looking ready to pull away.
It never quite worked out that way, though.
Driven by Emmanuel Agbason's complete aerial superiority in the paint, and Ismayil Abdullayev's ability to get to the rack off the dribble, Sabah were able to hang around and eventually took their first lead when Azar Ibrahimov floated in a jumper to put them up 20-19 with 3:53 on the clock in the second quarter.
From there, the game enjoyed six more lead changes and was tied eight times.
Sabah opened the third quarter with a 13-2 run to go up 41-27, but Yohann Tchouaffe and Slingerland were not ready to go out without a fight for Ludwigsburg. The Germans led the game against at 54-52 with 5:42 to go in the game.
Then, when Agbason picked up his third and fourth fouls in quick succession, it looked like the game was headed only one way.
Sabah coach Anar Hajiyev didn't blink, though; he left his big man in the game and was rewarded, as Agbason's monster game of 28 points, 20 rebounds, and 8 blocks was too much for Ludwigsburg to manage.
#4 Anything is possible in Group D
Spartak Office Shoes just chose chaos for Group D.
After losing to Telekom Baskets Bonn on Gameday 1, they bounced straight back with a win over Tofas Bursa that leaves a final game in the Group Phase between Bonn and Tofas, where we will all need to have the calculators out to see who has reached the Semi-Finals.
Tofas have never failed to reach the Semi-Finals of the YBCL, but after this agonizing loss to Spartak, they will need to beat Bonn tomorrow by 8 points or more to keep that run going.
If this game is anything to go by, however, they are going to need to dig deeper and find another level than they showed in this game.
Spartak led the game for 34 minutes and were up by 16 points at the half.
When Vukasin Velimirovic drove to the bucket for two more at the start of the third quarter, the Serbian club were up 45-27 and in total control. Tofas went on an 8-0 run directly after that and continued the fight back into the fourth quarter.
Kerem Corumlular tied the game at 63:63 with 5:04 on the clock and even took the lead twice in the fourth, as Tofas felt like they had timed it perfectly.
It wasn't to be, though, as Spartak learned from their battle with Bonn the night before, and 8 points from Aleksandar Nedeljkovic sealed the game for Nikola Nikolic's squad.
Malik Skalonjic again led the way for Spartak with 25 points and 5 rebounds.
If Spartak had found a way to beat Bonn, he would have just put himself in the running for the MVP award, but today's win was not by a large enough margin to give them a chance at reaching the Semi-Finals.