Mega blasts Buducnost, will face Zvezda for first place

U18 Mega SoccerBet Belgrade advanced to the first-place game of the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Belgrade with a resounding 75-96 victory over U18 Buducnost VOLI Podgorica. Nikola Jovic led the way with 33 points and 9 rebounds for Mega, which had runs of 2-13 and 0-16 in the third quarter to put the game away and set up a Sunday showdown with U18 Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade. Nikola Djurisic added 21 points, 6 rebounds and 9 assists for the Serbian club which finished first at the ANGT Belgrade in 2019 and reached the ANGT Championship Game in 2017 and 2019. Filip Stanojevic chipped in 12 points and Oleksandr Kobzystyi finished with 10 points and 7 rebounds in the victory. Buducnost had Eray Buyukcangaz as top scorer with 16 points while Zoran Vuceljic and Danilo Ivanovic both scored 14 points and Tomislav Ivisic contributed 12 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks. Buducnost will face U18 Partizan NIS Belgrade for third place.

Mega wasted no time taking control of the game with Djurisic hitting two three-pointers and Jovic scoring 11 points in building a 4-21 lead. Vuceljic countered with five points and Ivisic did the same to pull within 16-28 after 10 minutes. Mihailo Milutinovic drained a triple and Jovic converted an and-one to start the second quarter with a 16-34 lead. Buyukcangaz converted an and-one and Milos Stijepovic knocked down a triple to pull within 24-36. Buducnost continued to fight on and Vuceljic hit from deep and Buyukcangaz had four points in an 11-5 spurt to trim the margin to 37-45. Ivisic added four more points and the gap was 43-49 before Mega went into the locker room up 43-51.

Stijepovic scored the first basket of the second half but Mega went for the early knockout with a 2-13 surge over 3 minutes for a 47-64 advantage. Buyukcangaz hit a three-pointer to make it 54-66, but Buducnost did not score in the final 5 minutes of the third quarter as Jovic collected eight points in 0-16 run to lead 54-82 after 30 minutes. Mega took its foot off the gas in the fourth quarter but still didn’t allow Buducnost to cut too much into the lead, as it was never closer than 21 in the final 10 minutes.