Real rolls past Zvezda, into championship game

U18 Real Madrid will get a chance to defend its Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament title as it rolled past U18 Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade 83-71 to reach the 2021 ANGT Championship Game. The 2015 and 2019 champion took control of the game in the second quarter and never let Zvezda threaten the rest of the way. Urban Klavzar paced four Real players in double figures with 22 points while Eli Ndiaye had 18 points, 16 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. Konstantin Kostadinov also scored 18 points with Henri Veeshaar chipping in 15 points. Real struggled shooting - hitting just 37.2% on 2-pointers and 39.3% on three-pointers - but grabbed 20 offensive rebounds to secure a 3-0 record and first place in Group A. In Sunday’s title bout, Real will face either U18 FC Barcelona or U18 Mega SoccerBet Belgrade, who were facing off later on Day 3 to decide the winner of Group B. The 2014 continental champion Zvezda actually had a chance to play on Sunday but would have needed to defeat Real by 29 points to prevail in a three-way tie with the Spanish side and U18 LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne. Zvezda ended up with a 1-2 record despite Filip Brankovic leading the way with 17 points. Nikola Topic picked up 14 points and 7 assists and Nikola Saranovic added 12 points.

With Real star guard Juan Nunez not available because he was back in Madrid to play with the club’s senior team, Ndiaye scored the first four points of the game. Marko Mihailovic converted a three-point play at the other end only to see Kostadinov come up with a four-point play as Real started to run away 13-3. Zvezda offered some resistance with 7 straight points, but Real closed the first quarter with the final 9 points to lead 25-12. Veeshaar and Klavzar both hit triples early in the second quarter to lead 33-17. Then it was Ndiaye’s turn to take over a bit with 6 points in a 13-0 run, Real opened a 48-24 lead and held 54-28 at the break.

Zvezda did pick up the first 5 points of the second half only to see Klavzar and Kostadinov hit triples to make it 60-33. The result was not in doubt but Zvezda did win the third quarter 14-20 thanks to 6 points from Topic. Klavzar knocked down a three-pointer and Real was up 75-53 in the final frame. Zvezda at least wanted to make things interesting with a 0-8 spurt to pull within 75-61 with 4 minutes remaining. The Serbian side managed to cut the gap down to 12 points but it was too little too late.