The first day of the 2010 edition of the Nike International Junior Tournament saw the reigning champs FMP have a walk in the park in its debut game against Benetton Basket with a 111-85 Group A win on Thursday afternoon in Paris, France. FMP controlled the game from the start, took an early 20 points lead, and didn't allow its opponent to risk the win. The long bench of FMP allowed Coach Aleksandar Glisic to share the minutes between 11 players and still write a promising 26 point win. Bogdan Bogdanovic led FMP with 15 points, Nikola Jankovic and Nenad Miljenovic scored 14 each while Nikola Siladi had 13 in front of 3 more players in double-digits. Benetton saw 18 points by Alessandro Zanelli followed by Armin Mazic with 17 and Gianluca Valesin with 15. Tomorrow FMP will take on KK Split Croatia Osiguranje while Benetton will face Unicaja.

FMP stormed the court from the tip-off and scored the first 10 points of the game. Mazic put Benetton on the board, but FMP quickly answered with a 13-1 run to be up by 20, 23-3 after only 8 minutes. The big gap didn't stop the champs from keep the pressure on, making it difficult for Benetton to pass the half court line at times. Zanelli did a good job attacking the rim, and with 11 first half points didn't allow the gap to grow much more, as FMP held a 25 point difference at the half. After trailing 61-38 at the break, Benetton still found the spirit to fight in the second half. Three minutes inside the half included three hits from downtown to close the gap to only 67-48 and FMP called for a timeout. Benetton forced another turnover and was about to continue the good momentum but missed the chance only to see Miljenovic and Jankovic score 4 in a row, to ignite a 13-4 run which created a comfortable gap, enough to decide the game before the end of the third quarter.