Zvezda sweat out opening win over Olympiacos

Host side U18 Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade nearly blew a 23-point lead but started the quest to clinch its ninth straight Adidas Next Generation Tournament Belgrade victory with a 99-87 win over U18 Olympiacos Piraeus. Vukasin Masic led the way with 29 points on 5/5 three-point shooting and 5 assists for the 2014 continental champion Zvezda, which saw Olympiacos cut a 23-point late third quarter advantage to 4 points but extended its ANGT Belgrade winning streak to 36 games dating back to 2011. Lazar Zivanovic added 21 points while Nemanja Popovic collected 18 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks and Bojan Tomasevic chipped in 14 points and 9 rebounds in the Group A win. Andreas Tsoumanis paced Olympiacos with 28 points, Aleksej Pokusevski had 20 points and 8 rebounds and Panagiotis Oikonomou scored 16 points.

Pokusevski scored the first 5 points of the game for Olympiacos and Zvezda did not get on the scoreboard in the first 2 minutes. A second Pokusevski three-pointer had the Greek side up 12-13 before Masic came off the bench to spark Zvezda to a 10-2 run to go up 21-14 and the hosts were up 27-20 after 10 minutes. A Tomasevic three-ball to start the second quarter put the lead into double digits and back-to-back trey from Masic and Stevan Karapandzic increased the lead to 40-24. The Zvezda reserves kept the foot on the gas with Zivanovic picking up 5 points in an 11-6 spurt to move ahead 51-33 and the score was 53-37 at the break. Olympiacos scored the first four points of the second half to trim the gap to 12 points but Masic answered with 2 three-pointers in a 17-6 Zvezda run to go ahead 70-47. Olympiacos managed eight straight points but still trailed 78-59 after 30 minutes. Olympiacos stormed back into the game with Pokusevski and Tsoumanis combining for 18 points in a 4-20 run to make the Zvezda faithful nervous at 83-79 with 4 minutes left. But Karapandzic and Zivanovic hit three-pointers at the other end as the lead was back to 10 points 95-85 with 1 minute to play and Zvezda grabbed the win.