Prkacin, Paponja guide Cibona to seventh place

U18 Cibona Zagreb finished the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Valencia in seventh place after picking up a 78-63 victory over U18 Tofas Bursa. Roko Prkacin tallied 22 points, 18 rebounds and 3 blocks, Filip Paponja had 20 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists and 5 steals, Luksa Buljevic scored 13 points and Zvonimir Ivisic added 8 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocks for Cibona, which out-rebounded Tofas 58-41 and held the Turkish side to 3-of-22 three-pointers (13.6 percent). Tofas, which failed to win a game in its first ANGT appearance, was led by Egemen Usta and Berke Buyuktuncel both with 11 points while Batin Tuna and Ege Peksari both had 10 points.

Tuna scored nine points and Usta hit a three-pointer for a 8-14 Tofas lead. Zvonimir Ivisic picked up four points at the other end and the game was even 15-15 before the Turkish side led 17-21 after 10 minutes. Tofas kept Cibona scoreless for the first two minutes of the second quarter and led 17-27. But Cibona shut down Tofas for the rest of the quarter, allowing just two free throws and Paponja scored eight points in a 20-2 run for a 37-29 advantage at the break. Three Prkacin baskets had Cibona up 43-33 and then Prkacin and Paponja combined for 14 points in a 15-3 spurt to pull ahead 58-40. The lead was 58-44 after 30 minutes. Usta tallied two scores as Tofas started the fourth quarter with a 2-9 rally to cut the margin to 60-53. Cibona punched back to finish the game off with a 13-4 run including two straight Prkacin dunks and three-balls from Paponja and Buljevic for a 73-57 lead.