Real Madrid opened the ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT in style with a dominating 74-43 victory over Stellazzurra Basketball Academy Rome in Group A. The host team Madrid, which reached the title game last season, was paced by Jonathan Barreiro with 18 points while Santiago Yusta scored 16 points, Felipe Dos Anjos grabbed 10 rebounds and Luka Doncic collected seven points, 11 rebounds, three assists, one block and seven fouls drawn. Madrid is 1-0 in Group A while Stellazzurra dropped to 0-1. Rome shot just 25 percent for the game with Dario Masciarelli leading the way with nine points while Todor Radonjic chipped in seven points and seven rebounds. The Rome qualifying tournament MVP Andrea La Torre was held to six points on 2-of-12 shooting with four rebounds and three assists.

Madrid started the game on fire and jumped ahead 16-1, thanks to 11 points from Yusta. It didn’t help Stellazzurra’s cause that starting forward Njegos Sikiras picked up three fouls in the first 64 seconds of the game. Curtis Nwohuocha scored Rome’s first basket with 1:46 minutes left in the first quarter and Radonjic trimmed the gap to 16-5. The host team led 19-5 after 10 minutes. Stellazzurra opened the second half on a 2-10 surge to cut the Madrid advantage to 21-15. After a Madrid time, the Spanish club out-scored Stellazzurra 8-0 over nearly four minutes to make it 29-15. Madrid led 36-19 at intermission.

Sikiras picked up two fouls in the first 1:45 of the second half to head to the bench for the rest of the game. Radonjic nailed a three-pointer early in the third to bring Rome to within 39-26. Madrid however pushed the advantage to over 20 points for the first time on Andres Rico’s three-point play to make it 47-26. Rome refused to give up, trimming the margin to 49-35 on a Masciarelli trey. But the cushion was 55-35 after three quarters. Madrid did not let up in the fourth quarter, though Rome cut the gap to 17 points at 55-38. The hosts increased the lead out to 34 points over the rest of the quarter.