U18 Mega Bemax Belgrade wasted a 20-point lead, but came back to beat U18 Anadolu Efes Istanbul 70-85 to grab third place at Euroleague Basketball ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Belgrade. Aleksandar Langovic collected 22 points and 9 rebounds, while Luka Cerovina picked up 17 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals for Mega, which survived committing 32 turnovers. Efes lost despite Eren Has leading the way with 15 points, while Omercan Ilyasoglu had 12 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists and Mustafa Kurtuldum scored 11 points.

Efes was close early on before Mega made the first run with 8 straight points to go up 6-15. Has scored 5 points to get Efes within 13-15 only to see Mega pull ahead 13-20 and lead 16-22 after 10 minutes. Ilyasoglu hit an early three for Efes in the second quarter, but Langovic scored 8 points in a 0-14 Mega run to go ahead 19-39. Enes Bayraktar stopped the drought and Tarik Sezgun and Has combined for 13 points as Efes cut the margin to 38-46. It was 38-48 at the break.

Efes opened the second half on a 14-2 run with 6 points from Kurtuldum to pull ahead 52-50. The lead swapped hands three times and the game was tied 60-60 on Ilyasoglu’s three-pointer. After Has made it 62-60 to start the fourth quarter, Pavle Kuzmanovic came back with 5 points for a 64-67 lead. Langovic and Bogdan Nedeljkovic combined for 10 points in a 2-15 surge for a 68-82 lead, which essentially decided the game.