Kataja BC
Basketball team in Joensuu, Finland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kataja Basket Club (eng. Juniper) is a professional basketball club of sports club Kataja from Joensuu, Finland. The team plays in the Korisliiga, the highest tier of Finnish basketball. In 2015, Kataja won its first national championship, after it beat Bisons Loimaa 3–2 in the Finnish Finals.
| Kataja | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Leagues | Korisliiga | ||
| Founded | 1949 | ||
| Arena | Motonet Areena | ||
| Capacity | 2,500 | ||
| Location | Joensuu, Finland | ||
| President | Jukka Törmälä | ||
| Head coach | Petri Virtanen | ||
| Championships | 2 Finnish Leagues 4 Finnish Cups | ||
| Retired numbers | 4 (9)(11) (14) (15) | ||
| Website | katajabasket.fi | ||
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History
The basketball activity of the club started in 1955. In 1961, the team started playing in the Joensuu Sports Hall. The team started in provincial competitions, but quickly promoted to the national level in the 1960s. From 1976 till 1980, the team played continuously in the highest Finnish division. In the 2001–02 season, the team won its first trophy when it won the Finnish Cup. In 2015, the first championship of Kataja was realized after a 3–2 Finals series win against Bisons Loimaa. In the 2012–13 season, Kataja started participating in European competitions when it entered the EuroChallenge. The team immediately reached the quarterfinals of the competition, and has played in Europe every season since.[1]
Achievements
Players
Retired numbers
Current roster
| Kataja BC roster | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Updated: July 8, 2025 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Notable players
- Set a club record or won an individual award as a professional player.
- Played at least one official international match for his senior national team at any time.
Fiifi Aidoo[2]- Antti Kanervo
- Sami Lehtoranta
- Pekka Markkanen
- Topias Palmi
- Ilari Seppälä
- Jukka Toijala
- Petri Virtanen
- Teemu Rannikko
Daniel Mullings
Amanze Egekeze
Rion Brown- Robert Arnold
- Elijah Lufile
Season by season
| Season | Tier | League | Pos. | Finnish Cup[a] | European competitions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010–11 | 1 | Korisliiga | 2nd | Champion | |||
| 2011–12 | 1 | Korisliiga | 2nd | Champion | |||
| 2012–13 | 1 | Korisliiga | 3rd | 3 EuroChallenge | QF | 6–8 | |
| 2013–14 | 1 | Korisliiga | 2nd | N/a | 3 EuroChallenge | RS | 2–4 |
| 2014–15 | 1 | Korisliiga | 1st | 3 EuroChallenge | RS | 0–6 | |
| 2015–16 | 1 | Korisliiga | 5th | 3 FIBA Europe Cup | R32 | 5–7 | |
| 2016–17 | 1 | Korisliiga | 1st | 3 Champions League | RS | 6–8 | |
| 4 FIBA Europe Cup | R16 | 0–2 | |||||
| 2017–18 | 1 | Korisliiga | 6th | 3 Champions League | QR3 | 1–1–2 | |
| 4 FIBA Europe Cup | R2 | 4–8 | |||||
| 2018–19 | 1 | Korisliiga | 5th | 4 FIBA Europe Cup | R2 | 8–8 | |
| 2019–20 | 1 | Korisliiga | 7th[b] | 4 FIBA Europe Cup | RS | 3–5 | |
| 2020–21 | 1 | Korisliiga | 7th | ||||
| 2021–22 | 1 | Korisliiga | 4th | ||||
| 2022–23 | 1 | Korisliiga | 3rd | ||||
| 2023–24 | 1 | Korisliiga | 4th | 4 FIBA Europe Cup | RS | 2–6 | |
| 2024–25 | 1 | Korisliiga | 4th | ||||
- The Finnish Cup competition was inactive from 2014–2018.
- On 13 March 2020, the season was ended prematurely due to the coronavirus pandemic.[3]