U18 Crvena Zvezda Telekom Belgrade opened the defense of its ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Qualifying Tournament - Marko Ivkovic Belgrade in style with a 105-78 victory over U18 Buducnost VOLI Podgorica in Group A. Borisa Simanic collected 34 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks for Zvezda, which is shooting for a sixth straight ANGT Belgrade title. Aleksa Radanov had 20 points, 4 assists and 4 steals while Stefan Dordevic collected 16 points and 12 rebounds and Ivan Corovic picked up 11 points, 4 rebounds and 11 assists for Zvezda. Buducnost lost despite 23 points and 10 rebounds from Milos Popovic while Andrija Slavkovic scored 18 points, Ognjen Carapic had 13 points and Nikola Vujovic scored 10 points in the defeat.

Slavkovic started the game for Buducnost and Popovic made it 0-4 before Stefan Dordevic scored the first points for Zvezda. Slavkovic upped the lead to 2-6 before Simanic took over. The Zvezda forward nailed back-to-back three-pointers to give the Serbian side the lead 8-6. Carapic knocked down a three-ball to put Buducnost back ahead but Simanic hit another triple for a 15-9 lead and a Buducnost time out. Matija Radovic increased the advantage to double digits 21-11, and Radanov finished an 8-0 spurt to push the gap to 31-15. The margin was 31-17 after 10 minutes with Simanic having scored 17 points in the quarter. Slavkovic scored 5 points and Popovic put back his own miss to get Buducnost to within 33-24. Radanov answered with 2 baskets to make it 37-24. Carapic’s three-point play got the gap to 10 points and the margin swung between 10 and 13 points until Corovic hit for a 47-32 advantage. After Vuk Dordevic converted a Corovic assist for a 51-34 cushion, Carapic hit 4 straight points to spark a 3-8 run to close the first half down 54-42.

Dordevic and Corovic scored to open the second half and a 58-42 lead before Popovic finally got Buducnost on the board after more than 2 minutes of action. Simanic continued his strong game with 2 more baskets as Zvezda pushed the lead to 68-44 with a 10-0 surge. Popovic responded with a free throw and 2 put-backs to get the margin down to 70-51. But Matija Radovic knocked down a three and Dordevic put back an offensive rebound to increase the margin to 77-53 after 30 minutes. Slavkovic opened the fourth quarter with a three-pointer and added another triple to get the gap down to 80-64. It was 84-68 on Popovic’s basket with 6 minutes left. But Radanov pushed the gap to 20 points - 91-71 - with less than 4 minutes to play. And it was 98-74 after Radanov’s next score with 2 minutes left. And Buducnost would not get closer than 22 points the rest of the way.