U18 Cedevita Zagreb opened up play in Group B of the ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Qualifying Tournament - Marko Ivkovic Belgrade with a strong 93-77 victory over U18 FC Bayern Munich. Dzanan Musa totaled 37 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals, 3 blocks and 9 fouls drawn for a PIR of 49 for Cedevita. Toni Perkovic scored 17 points while Antonio Jordano and Darko Bajo both added 15 points in the win. Nelson Weidemann starred for Bayern with 32 points while Vladimir Pinchuk collected 10 points and 12 rebounds in the defeat.

Bajo opened the game with 2 free throws for Cedevita and Luka Barisic made it 4-0 before Jannick Jebens got Bayern on the board. After Musa pushed the lead to 8-2, Bayern got a basket from Noah Kandem to cut it to 8-7. Bayern however hit just one basket in 4 minutes and Musa scored 5 points to push the lead to 17-9. Kandem nailed a triple to help Bayern pull within 19-14. But Cedevita scored the final 6 points of the quarter, including a trey from Jordano to make it 25-14. Niklas Kropp started the second quarter with a three-pointer and the margin was only 26-22 after a pair of Weidemann baskets. Musa added 6 more points and Perkovic drained a triple as the Cedevita cushion swelled to 37-26. The Croatian club then struggled offensively, going scoreless for more than 3 minutes and Pinchuk’s basket had Bayern to within 40-37. Perkovic nailed a three-ball to push the gap to 6 points but Weidemann’s triple at the buzzer had Bayern down just 45-42 at intermission.

Pinchuk scored back-to-back baskets to start the second half and even the game at 46-46. Cedevita responded with the next 7 points and Perkovic and Musa nailed back-to-back long balls as the lead was up to 62-51. Bayern managed the final 4 points of the third quarter to cut the gap to 64-57 after 30 minutes. Jordano opened the fourth quarter with a three-pointer and Musa and Perkovic both threw down break-away dunks as Cedevita began to get away from Bayern with a 13-2 run for a 77-60 advantage with 6 minutes to play. Perkovic was on target two more times from long range as the lead increased to 84-64 with 4 minutes left. A Mario Hack-Vazquez free throw pulled Bayern to within 84-68 but Cedevita would not let Bayern get closer the rest of the way.