BC Crvena Zvezda opened up the Belgrade Tournament at Basket City with a 63-92 win over Germany's Alba Berlin on Friday morning. A high-scoring first quarter set the tone for the match and the difference between the teams after ten minutes proved to be decisive at the end of game one. The Serbian team -participants in the final round of the NIJT last year- shared out main scoring duties between Jankovic (18 points) Djukanovic (16 points) and Ristic (13 points) as it went 1-0 in this year's qualification tournament.

Crvena Zvezda took the lead almost immediately from the tip off and remained ahead until the final buzzer. The first quarter closed with a 12-point advantage to the Serbian team, who were dominating inside with lay ups and dunks from close quarters. It was a 16-point game by half time, as Jankovic continued to grab offensive and defensive boards and put in his shots. He was also picking up plenty of fouls in the process, taking him to the line to rack up further points for Crvena.

Luka Kamber's three-pointers and Mauricio Marin's frequent baskets provided Berlin with a response -the latter hitting a shot from outside the perimeter with six seconds remaining in the third. Despite their efforts, however, Berlin still trailed by 17 points heading into the final quarter. In that period it had to wait four minutes to score its first basket and Crvena Zvezda took over until the end, although Berlin again beat the buzzer through the game's top scorer, Luka Kamber.