U18 Mega Bemax Belgrade will play for third place at the Euroleague Basketball ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Belgrade after beating U18 GBA Prague 59-67 to secure the second spot in Group B. Bogdan Nedeljkovic scored 20 points and had 5 rebounds and 3 blocks for Mega, which finished group play with a 2-1 record. Luka Cerovina added 18 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists for Mega, which will take on U18 Anadolu Efes Istanbul for third place on Sunday. GBA was paced by Mark Jaakson with 14 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists while Filip Novotny had 14 points on 4 three-pointers and Lubos Kovar collected 10 points and 10 rebounds. GBA will face U18 Umana Reyer Venice for fifth place.

GBA scored the first 5 points only to see Mega hit the next 7 points. GBA did go up 9-7 on a David Odiah basket, but Mega finished the first quarter on an 0-9 run to lead 9-16 after 10 minutes. The run extended to 0-11 for a 9 point lead until two scores from Jaakson stopped the drought. Novotny nailed a three-pointer for GBA and Tomas Mikyska tallied two scores to trim the gap to 24-26. Mega would not let GBA grab the lead and Nedeljkovic tallied 8 points the rest of the half and Mega was up 32-36 at intermission.

GBA held Mega scoreless for more than 3 minutes to start the second half but could not take advantage and still trailed 34-36. After Vladan Music’s basket made it 34-40, Novotny nailed three three-pointers to pull GBA within 43-44. Music scored again and Mega was up 43-47 after 30 minutes. Cerovina picked up six points to keep Mega ahead but Modestas Marscionka and Jaakson both knocked down three-pointers to knot the game at 55-55. Nedeljkovic answered with a three-ball of his own and Pavle Kuzmanovic converted a three-point play to push Mega ahead 57-61. Marscionka would cut it to 59-61, but Aleksandar Langovic made two free throws and then Cerovina knocked down a three-pointer with 22 seconds left for a 59-66 lead - and secure the victory.