Zvezda bounces back to defeat Maccabi

Host side U18 Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade bounced back from its opening round loss to knock off U18 Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv 79-68 at the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Belgrade. Nikola Manojlovic led the way with 18 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists for the 2014 continental champion Zvezda, which improved to 1-1 in Group A after a loss to U18 Panathinaikos OPAP Athens to start the tournament. Lazar Joksimovic scored 15 points, Milutin Ostojic collected 14 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists, Vuk Dobrasinovic had 13 points and Filip Andusic chipped in 6 points and 14 rebounds. Yuval Levin paced Maccabi with 26 points on 6 three-pointers and Harel Rinski tallied 15 points.

The game was tight in the opening minutes until Zvezda went on a 10-0 run for a 16-8 lead. After Ostojic’s three-pointer made it 19-10, Levin made two three-pointers trying to keep Maccabi close but Manojlovic pushed the advantage to 23-13 and Dobrasinov had it at 27-16. After 10 minutes, the score was 29-22. Dobrasinov and Ostojic drained long balls to start the second quarter for a 35-24 cushion but Levin remained hot, hitting four three-pointers to get Maccabi within 44-42. Another Ostojic triple had the home side up 47-42 at the break. Zvezda broke the game open at the start of the second half with a 13-0 run over nearly 4 minutes with Manojlovic scoring 5 points for a 58-42 margin. Nadav Sahar finally got Maccabi on the board again but a Filip Brankovic free throw made it 65-44. Rinski did knock down two triples at the other end but Maccabi was still down 73-53 after 30 minutes. Darko Bosnjak made it 75-55 when Maccabi had one run left to make things interesting with Nadav Yancowitz scoring 7 straight points in a 0-9 spell to pull within 75-64. But Brankovic scored an inside layup and Maccabi would not get closer than 11 points the rest of the way.