U18 FIATC Joventut Badalona began its Euroleague Basketball ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Qualifying Tournament – Torneig de Bàsquet Junior Ciutat de L'Hospitalet with a come-from-behind 80-79 victory over U18 Maccabi Teddy Tel Aviv. Josep Busquets scored 21 points and Nenad Dimitijevic collected 14 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists as Joventut charged back from a 15-point third-quarter deficit to win the Group A opener. Vilgot Larsson and Pol Molins both chipped in 10 points in the victory. Yovel Zoosman led the way for Maccabi with 27 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 steals and 2 blocks for a 34 PIR ranking. Amit Ebo nailed 4 three-pointers in scoring 18 points in the defeat as Maccabi missed half of its free throws (8-of-16) and turned the ball over 25 times.

Larsson’s free throw started the scoring for Joventut and Alejandro Galan’s layup made it 3-0. After Amit Suss hit 2 free throws for Maccabi’s first points, Galan gave Joventut a 7-4 lead. Zoosman’s free throws started an 0-6 run for a 7-10 advantage. Joventut would regain the lead 11-10 but Zoosman’s put-back was followed by a Suss three-ball and the gap went to 11-17. The Spanish team trimmed it to 16-17 on a Busquets three-ball and Maccabi led 18-21 after 10 minutes. Dimitijevic and Eduard Garcia combined for the first 9 points of the second quarter and Joventut was up 27-21. Zoosman and Ebo punched right back with back-to-back triples to tie the game and Zoosman put Maccabi up 27-29. Busquets temporarily put Joventut back ahead 30-29. But Maccabi began to take over more control of the game thanks to Zoosman, who picked up 4 more points in opening a 34-42 lead. And the half time score was 36-42.

Zoosman opened the second half with the first 4 points to up the bulge to 36-46. Larsson answered with the next 5 points for Joventut but the Spanish side could not get the defensive stops it needed with Tomer Porat scoring 6 points and Ebo nailing a three-pointer as the Maccabi advantage was 45-60. A Busquets three-ball helped Joventut close the gap to 8 points and it was 52-62 after 30 minutes. Zoosman and Busquets traded big baskets as Joventut would not let Maccabi pull away but could not get closer either. Larsson’s put-back made it 63-69 mid-way through the fourth quarter and it was 69-75 when Ebo nailed another three-ball. But Dimitijevic answered with a trey at the other end and added 2 free throws to get Joventut to within 78-79 with a minute to play. Larsson came up big late, first drawing an offensive foul on Zoosman with 49 seconds left and then scoring the eventual game-winning basket 5 seconds later. Maccabi missed its final three attempts – all from three-point range as Joventut got the win.