U18 Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade opened the defense of its Euroleague Basketball ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Belgrade title with a convincing 71-53 victory over U18 Spars Ziraat Bank Sarajevo in Group A. Zoran Paunovic scored 18 of his team-high 22 points in the first half to go with 8 rebounds and 3 assists for Zvezda, which has now won 32 games in a row in this qualifying tournament. Bojan Tomasevic added 12 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists for the winners and Milos Cojasic chipped in 10 points in the victory. Tarik Biberovic nailed 5 three-pointers in scoring 15 points for Spars while Semir Karic had 12 points in the loss.

The game was tight still midway through the first quarter with Zvezda up 9-8. But the hosts turned up the defensive pressure and allowed just one Biberovic three-pointer for Spars while Paunovic had 4 points in an 8-3 close to the first quarter to lead 17-11. Lazar Vasic and Paunovic both hit three-pointers in a 12-0 run to start the second quarter in building a 29-11 lead. Karic finally got Spars on the board after more than 5 minutes. But Tomasevic and Paunovic completed three-point plays in pushing the gap to 39-15. The lead was 44-18 at the break.

An Arijan Lakic three-pointer increased the Zvezda advantage to 28 points 47-19 early in the third quarter. Spars made their first real run of the game with Biberovic nailing three three-pointers and Deni Radak adding a long ball of his own in a 4-18 surge to cut the deficit in half 51-37. Zvezda answered with the next 6 points and the lead was 57-42 after 30 minutes. Spars trimmed the gap to 58-44 but Tomasevic hit 5 points in getting the lead back to 23 points 67-46. And the game was essentially over.