U18 GBA Prague opened the Euroleague Basketball ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Belgrade with a 62-68 victory over U18 Cibona Zagreb in Group B. Lubos Kovar paced GBA with 18 points and 11 rebounds while Mark Jaakson picked up 15 points. Dino Bistrovic scored 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the loss and Sandro Rasic added 11 points and 7 rebounds.

GBA scored the first 5 points of the game and lead 3-8. Cibona was able to cut it to 7-8 only to see Modestas Marcionka’s three-point play make it 9-15. And GBA led 16-19 after 10 minutes. Tomas Pavelka completed a dunk and free throw as the gap increased to 16-24. And back-to-back three-balls from Jaakson had GBA up 20-30. The lead was as many as 11 points and the Prague side was ahead 25-35 at intermission.

David Odiah started the second half with a three-pointer as the advantage grew to 25-38. But Bistrovic took over with 11 points in an 18-0 Cibona run to go ahead 43-38. Stepan Borovka snapped the 6:35-minute scoreless stretch and GBA scored the final 11 points of the quarter to lead 43-49 after 30 minutes. A Kovar three-ball had GBA ahead 49-56 but five different Cibona players scored in an 11-3 run to nose ahead 60-59. Cibona failed to score on its next four possessions and Borovka knocked down a three-pointer for a 60-66 GBA advantage with 29 seconds left. And Odiah added two free throws down to stretch to secure the win.