U18 Cibona Zagreb squandered a 16-point lead but came back to beat U18 Fenerbahce Istanbul 100-92 in a double-overtime thriller to tip off the Euroleague Basketball ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Qualifying Tournament – Kaunas. Karlo Uljarevic flirted with a triple-double for Cibona with 24 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists while Mate Mandic had 19 points and Josip Popic picked up 15 points, 11 rebounds and 4 steals in the Group A opener. Cibona closed the game with a 14-2 run with Luka Jelinic chipping in 11 points in the victory. Ahmet Can Duran collected 25 points and 7 rebounds in the loss for Fenerbahce while Cengizhan Ivedi had 16 points, Halil Ocal and Emir Erol both scored 14 points and Sonmezalp Eren added 11 points in the loss. Ivan Majic scored the first points of the tournament for Cibona and Duran hit Fenerbahce’s first points.

Cibona pulled ahead 8-4 early before Fenerbahce went on a 2-12 run to take a 10-16 lead. The Turkish club did not give up the lead the rest of the quarter, leading 17-19 after 10 minutes. Fenerbahce picked up the first 7 points of the second quarter to lead 17-26. And it was 19-28 when Cibona went on a huge 29-4 run in the second quarter with Uljarevic scoring 8 points and Jelinic and Petar Sunjic both nailing three-pointers in building a 48-32 advantage at intermission.

Efe Gunyeli opened the second half and Fenerbahce came up with some defensive stops as 2 Ocal free throws finished a 2-8 start in the first five minutes of the third quarter to make it 50-40. Cibona answered with the next 4 points and Fenerbahce could not get closer than 9 points in the period as Mandic knocked down a three-pointer and Kresimir Nikic put back an offensive rebound just before the buzzer to put Cibona up 61-47 after 30 minutes. Duran opened the fourth quarter with the first 4 points only to see Jelinic hit a three-pointer to restore a 13-point lead 64-51. The advantage was still 11 points 71-60 with 3 minutes to play. But Fenerbahce forced Cibona into 2 turnovers in the next 2 minutes while Duran scored 5 points and Erol turned a steal into a layup to make it 73-71 with 1:12 minutes left. Sunjic missed a three-pointer but Cibona grabbed the offensive rebound only to see Popic miss 2 free throws with 51 seconds left. Ocal knotted the game 73-73 with 37 seconds left in regulation. Neither team could score the rest of regulation, sending the game to overtime.

The game was close throughout the first extra session with the first 3-point lead coming on Ivedi’s three-pointer to make it 78-81 with 53 seconds left. Uljarevic answered with a triple of his own for Cibona before Duran converted a three-point play with 29 seconds remaining. Mandic punched back with a three-ball with 17 seconds to play and the game went to a second overtime when Duran missed his attempt at the buzzer. Duran struck first in the second extra session and 2 Ocal free throws made it 85-88. But Duran fouled out with 3:46 minutes left to play, and even though the lead was extended to 86-90 Fenerbahce had lost its go-to guy on offense. Fenerbahce scored just 2 free throws in the final 3:05 minute, missing all 8 of its field goal attempts while Cibona converted on six of its final 7 possessions in a 14-2 close to the game.