Host team Stellazzurra Basketball Academy Rome opened the ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT with a hard-fought 60-56 victory over Brose Baskets Bamberg in Group A. Todor Rodonjic had 14 points and five rebounds and Andrea La Torre collected 13 points, four rebounds and six steals to lead Stellazzurra, which went to the Rome final last winter. Rome held Bamberg to just three points in the final 7:52 minutes. The game was back and forth throughout with 17 lead changes and seven ties. Tibor Tarass paced Bamberg with 16 points while Timo Dippold and Daniel Keppeler both scored 11 points and Leon Kratzer picked up 10 points, nine rebounds and two blocks. Stellazzurra is 1-0 in Group A and Brose dropped to 0-1.

Brose jumped ahead 0-10 and was leading 2-13 after Taras’s second three-pointer. Stellazzurra responded with an 11-0 run to knot the game at 13-13 and the hosts trailed 14-16 after 10 minutes. Rome took its first lead at 18-16 and led 20-16. After four more lead changes, Stellazzurra was leading 29-26 at intermission.

The Rome lead grew to 31-26 but Bamberg answered with six straight points to reclaim the lead. Six lead changes followed and Brose was up 37-41, only to see Rodonjic spark an 8-0 surge to pull back ahead. The quarter continued to go back and forth with 11 lead changes over the 10 minutes and Bamberg leading 48-50 after 30 minutes. Bamberg pushed the advantage to 48-53 with just less than eight minutes to play. But Rome picked up its defense and held Brose to one point in an 8-1 run over a 6:30 minute stretch for a 56-54 lead. Bamberg tied the game on a dunk by Keppeler with 1:22 minutes to play but the team would not score the rest of the game. Radonjic scored and then Lorenzo Bucarelli and Kristinn Palsson both split two free throws in the final 10 seconds to secure the win.