ALBA keeps alive its semifinals chances

ALBA Berlin collected its first win of the ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT by beating Mega Leks Belgrade 84-73 to set up a do-or-die Group A match-up with Vaerlose BBK for a spot in the semifinals. Lars Lagerpusch collected 18 points and eight rebounds to lead ALBA while Ferdinand Zylka scored 14 points, Tim Schneider had 13 and Felix Carels added 10 points. ALBA improved to 1-1 in Group A and will face off with Vaerlose on Day 2 with the winner reaching the last four in Belgrade. Mega Leks dropped to 0-2 despite Vukadin Milicevic scoring 18 points while Luka Vulikic had 16 and Mladen Grusanovic added 14 points in the loss.

ALBA scored the first four points of the game and Mega answered with the next four. Lagerpusch’s basket gave ALBA a 10-4 lead. Grusanovic’s three-ball trimmed the advantage to 10-7 but Marko Krstanovic pushed the cushion to 14-9. Aleksa Cabrilo knocked down a triple to get Mega to within 14-12. The gap was 16-13 after 10 minutes. Aleksa Matic’s two free throws gave the Belgrade team its first lead at 16-17. Lukas Wank answered with a three-ball to put ALBA back ahead. But Cabrilo and Milicevic both nailed three-pointers as Mega went up 19-23. Julius During scored two baskets - the second being from long range - to get ALBA as close as 26-27. But Milicevic converted a three-point play for a 26-32 margin. After an ALBA timeout, Zylka hit a trey and Lagerpusch scored a layup to make it 31-32. Lagerpusch put back an offensive rebound to give the German club the lead 34-33. Mega was back ahead 34-38 after four Vulikic free throws. Two more free throws from Vulikic made it 39-42 at intermission.

Novak Music started the second half with a score to make it 39-44. But Zylka’s dunk and three-point play ended a 9-2 run to put ALBA up 48-46. Cabrilo answered with a three-ball but Zylka punched right back with a trey of his own for a 51-49 lead. There were four lead changes and the game was even at 58-58 until a Carels three-pointer to make it 61-58. Jovan Vojinovic put Mega back ahead 61-62 but Carels’ basket had ALBA up 63-62 after 30 minutes. Wank and Lagerpusch led a 13-0 ALBA run to start the fourth quarter for a 76-62 lead. Milcevic’s free throw with 5:39 minutes left was Mega’s first point of the quarter, and Vulikic’s three-point play completed the 0-8 Mega run to make it 76-70 with less than three minutes to play. But Carels nailed a three-pointer to make it 80-70 and Schneider’s dunk had the lead at 82-71 with 55 seconds left to seal the win.