Real too much for Tofas in comfortable win

U18 Real Madrid opened its Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Istanbul with a comfortable 89-60 victory over U18 Tofas Bursa. Urban Klavzar tallied 14 points to pace five players in double figures for Real, which took control of the game with a 14-0 run to close the first half. Juan Nunez collected 13 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists, Konstantin Kostadinov scored 13 points, Ismaila Diagne had 12 and Eli Ndiaye added 10 points and 8 rebounds for Real in the Group B game. Ege Demir was Tofas’ leading scorer with 19 points and 10 rebounds, Egemen Usta picked up 13 points and Ege Peksari added 10 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists. Tofas could not find its target from deep, hitting just 2-of-19 three-pointers (10.5%) in the game.

Tofas started well with Usta picking up five points for a 3-9 lead. Real needed almost 4 minutes before scoring its second basket but then got eight points from Ndiaye in a 20-2 run to surge ahead 23-11. And the lead was 27-17 after 10 minutes. Real twice pushed the advantage to 14 points before Tofas went on a 2-11 spurt to trim the gap to 37-32. Real shut the door on the threat and kept Tofas scoreless for the final 3:35 minutes of the first half and Sediq Garuba and Matteo Spagnolo both hit triples in a 14-0 run to lead 51-32 at intermission.

Three-pointers by Nunez, Owen Aquino and Nikolas Cebrian increased the margin to 64-37 while Demir tried to limit the damage. Still Real was up 70-43 after 30 minutes. Real took its foot off the gas and needed nearly 3 minutes to score in the fourth quarter while Tofas scored nine straight points to close within 70-52. Diagne finally got Real on the board and Klavzar hit a triple in an 8-0 run for an 82-56 cushion and end any doubts.