U18 Cedevita Zagreb finished off group play of the ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Qualifying Tournament - Marko Ivkovic Belgrade with a potentially-costly 82-81 victory over U18 Zemun Belgrade. Cedevita star Dzanan Musa went down with a right knee injury with three minutes left in the third quarter and did not return while Toni Perkovic collected 20 points in keeping the team undefeated at 3-0 in Group B. Luka Barisic scored 14 points in the win and Dario Kuzmanovic added 13 points while Musa finished with 9 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists. Cedevita took first place in the group. Zemun dropped to 0-3 despite 24 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists from Mateja Todoric while Aleksa Kojadinovic collected 22 points and 9 rebounds.

Perkovic opened the scoring for Cedevita and Barisic made it 4-0. After Zemun failed to score for the first 2 minutes of the game, Marko Kosic hit the team’s first points and Vuk Starcic gave Zemun its first lead at 4-6. Antonio Jordano pushed Cedevita back ahead 11-9 and after a pair of ties Kosic’s put-back gave Zemun 14-15. Aleksa Zaric’s two free throws made it a 3-point lead and Aleksa Birovljev’s foul shot left Zemun ahead 17-21. The Belgrade side was up 20-23 after 10 minutes. Kojadinovic hit the first basket of the second quarter for Zemun and his next bucket had Zemun ahead 24-27. But Cedevita raced out on a 14-2 run featuring two three-pointers from Perkovic to lead 38-29. Birovljev came out of the Zemun timeout with a three-pointer and Todoric trimmed the gap to 38-36 with a pair of free throws. Marko Montana knocked down a three-ball for Cedevita, which led 45-38 at intermission.

Jordano started the second half with a three-pointer to push the margin to 10 points with Kojadinovic and Zaric trimming the deficit to 48-42. Musa answered with a three-ball but Zemun would not go away with Todoric hitting a triple and Mihajloski making it 55-50. Todoric’s basket got the gap to 58-54. Musa then went down with a right knee injury at the 3-minute mark of the third quarter and did not return. Leon Dubroja tried to pick up the slack with couple baskets to push the margin to 64-55. And David Setka put Cedevita up 68-57 after 30 minutes. Kuzmanovic increased the advantage to 70-57 to start the fourth quarter and it was still 73-61 after Dubroja’s triple. Nikola Kovacevic’s three-point play got Zemun to within 73-67, but Perkovic nailed a triple and added another score and Barisic put back an offensive rebound to keep Cedevita ahead 80-71 with 2 minutes remaining. Todoric and Mihajloski both knocked down three-pointers in the final 18 seconds to make the result closer.