Cedevita Zagreb started the ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT with a 71-77 victory over Maccabi Teddy Tel Aviv in Group A in Rome. Lovro Mazalin scored 12 of his 28 points in the final six minutes to help Cedevita fight off Maccabi while he also had seven rebounds, six assists, two blocks and seven fouls drawn. Bruno Solomun added 13 points and Benedikt Turudic collected 10 points, 10 rebounds, two steals and one block in the win. Cedevita joined host team Stellazzurra Basketball Academy Rome in moving to 1-0 in the group while Maccabi dropped to 0-1 along with Brose Baskets Bamberg. Dragan Bender paced Maccabi with 21 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two blocks while Amit Ebo scored 15 points and Adam Salkind chipped in 12 points in the losing effort.

Maccabi jumped ahead 11-5 in the first quarter and the advantage was 18-13 before Cedevita scored the final five points of the quarter to even things at 18-18. The Tel Aviv cushion was back up to 25-20 before Zagreb hit the next seven points to nose ahead. After Maccabi reclaimed the lead 29-27, Mazalin and Karlo Miksic nailed back-to-back threes and Solomun added a trey of his own in an 0-11 run for a 29-38 lead. Maccabi was unfazed and punched right back with a 9-0 surge to tie the game at 38-38. Cedevita was up 41-42 at the break.

Team from Zagreb scored the first four points in the second half to push ahead 41-46 before Maccabi knotted the game at 48-48. But Cedevita finished the last four minutes of the third quarter on a 2-11 run to lead 51-62 after 30 minutes. Amit scored seven points as Maccabi opened the fourth quarter on an 11-2 run to close within 62-64 with 5:45 left. But Mazalin stepped up with a three-pointer to stop the run and added a layup and made 7 of 7 free throws down the stretch to secure the win.