U18 Cedevita Zagreb make a big step towards a spot in the semifinals of the ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Qualifying Tournament - Marko Ivkovic Belgrade with a convincing 93-79 victory over U18 Partizan Belgrade in Group B. Dzanan Musa collected 24 points, 8 rebounds, 11 assists, 6 steals and 1 block for a PIR of 45 as Cedevita improved to 2-0 in the group. Antonio Jordano nailed 4 three-pointers in scoring 18 points while Toni Perkovic added 17 points, Luka Barisic had 14 points and Darko Bajo chipped in 10 points and 3 blocks. Partizan dropped to 1-1 despite 31 points, 13 rebounds and 3 steals from Milos Glisic. Nikola Jerotic added 13 points in the defeat.

Glisic opened the game with the first basket, and after Jordano and Perkovic hit from downtown for Cedevita to make it 6-4, Jerotic answered with 4 points as Partizan went up 6-9. Jordano’s next three-ball started a 7-0 surge to put Cedevita up 13-9. The lead switched hands 6 times as another Jordano triple had the Croatian side in front 20-18. Musa followed from long range as the gap grew to 27-22. Glisic continued his strong game with a three-point play and put-back to make it 29-27 after 10 minutes. Musa got the scoring going in the second quarter while Partizan went scoreless for 2 minutes until Srecko Gasic’s three-ball made it 31-30. Partizan was held to just 2 free throws over a 6-minute stretch as Bajo, Musa and Perkovic all nailed three-pointers in a 16-2 run for a 49-34 lead. Glisic finally scored another basket for Partizan and the Cedevita advantage was 51-39 at intermission.

Barisic started the second half with a three-pointer for Cedevita to push the lead to 15 points and it was 56-41 after a pair of Barisic foul shots. Partizan went on an 0-7 spurt to close within 56-48 but Jordano knocked down a three-pointer after a timeout and Perkovic added a long ball in a 12-2 run to move ahead 68-50. Partizan tried to get back into the game with the next 6 points but Barisic knocked down a triple to start an 11-2 close to the third quarter for a 79-58 lead. Musa scored to start the fourth quarter. Partizan got the lead down to 19 points 85-66 with 7 minutes to play. Cedevita took Musa out of the game then knowing there’s another game later in the day. Tadija Tadic and Aleksa Popovic both knocked down three-pointers to close to within 87-74 with 4 minutes left. But Cedevita kept Partizan scoreless for the next 2 minutes and Perkovic scored 4 points to push the gap to 93-74 with less than 2 minutes to play.