U18 Union Olimpija Ljubljana remained alive for a spot in the semifinals of the Euroleague Basketball ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Qualifying Tournament – Torneig de Bàsquet Junior Ciutat de L'Hospitalet with a thrilling 69-67 victory over U18 FIATC Joventut Badalona. Ziga Jurcek nailed a three-pointer with 2 seconds left to give Olimpija the win after Nenad Dimitijevic had drained a three-ball of his own to give Joventut the lead with 13 seconds remaining. Jurcek’s 16 points kept Olimpija from being eliminated as the win moved both teams to 1-1 in Group A. Matic Vesel added 15 points and both Haris Cucovic and Gaber Ozegovic scored 12 points in the victory. Dimitijevic paced Joventut with 16 points while Alejandro Galan had 14 points and 8 rebounds. Pedro Barros chipped in 13 points and Eric Gonzalez added 10 points, 6 rebounds and 2 blocks.

Gonzalez scored to open the game and Joventut went up 0-4 early on. Barros hit his second basket to push the lead to 4-8. Olimpija tallied the next 5 points to take its first lead 9-8 on Vesel’s three-pointer. The lead switched hands twice before Cucovic’s basket had the Slovenian side ahead 19-12. The margin was 22-14 when David Kralj nailed a three-pointer at the first quarter buzzer for Olimpija. Matevz Mlakar pushed the advantage to double digits to start the second quarter before Kralj, Ozegovic and Nik Dragan all nailed three-pointers to make it 33-18. The Olimpija offense went cold with just 1 basket over the next 6 minutes – a Jurcek three-ball – as Barros scored 7 points in a 4-14 run to close within 39-32. Olimpija still led 41-32 at intermission.

Olimpija pushed the advantage back out to 12 points, 46-34, early in the third quarter, and the cushion was still 49-40 midway through the period. But Joventut began to take over the game. Mlakar’s three-pointer had Olimpija up 52-45 with 3:55 minutes in the quarter but the Slovenian team missed its next 6 shots and turned it over twice while watching Josep Busquets score 5 points in an 0-9 run as Joventut was up 52-54 after 30 minutes. Jurcek’s three-ball started the fourth quarter and pushed Olimpija back ahead and another Jurcek long ball made it 58-54. Olimpija remained up 62-59 with 4 minutes left when Dimitijevic and Gonzalez both scored to give Joventut a 62-63 lead. Olimpija pulled back ahead 66-63 and it was a 2-point game when Galan split 2 free throws with 56 seconds to play. After a Cucovic miss, Dimitijevic knocked down a three-pointer with 13 seconds as the Spanish side thought it had once again come back from a 15-point deficit to win. But Jurcek ended those dreams with another three-pointer to decide the game.