U18 GBA Prague grabbed fifth place at Euroleague Basketball ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Belgrade by beating U18 Umana Reyer Venice 55-72 for its best-ever finish in the tournament. Lubos Kovar led the way for GBA with 19 points and 13 rebounds and Tomas Mikyska had 17 points. But most importantly was GBA’s defense holding Venice star Federico Miaschi to just 9 points on 3-of-15 shooting. Pietro Ugolini and Leonardo Battistuzzi were Venice’s top scorers with 13 points each.

David Odiah knocked down a three-pointer and Mikyska scored 4 points as GBA opened a 6-12 advantage. Miaschi picked up his first points for Venice and Battistuzzi made it 10-12, but Mikyska added 3 more points for a 12-17 lead after 10 minutes. GBA continued to take Miaschi out of the game and Venice could not score for the first five minutes of the second quarter, while Andree Loigu, Kovar and Jakub Cejka all nailed three-pointers in a 3-14 run for a 15-31 lead. The gap was 18-34 at the break.

Venice had the better start to the second half with Battistuzzi scoring 8 points in a 13-3 surge to pull within 31-37. Edoardo Battiston trimmed it to 39-44, but Odiah and Kovar both knocked down three-pointers to get the lead to double digits. GBA led 45-56 after 30 minutes. Kovar tallied 6 points early in the fourth quarter as the lead grew to 47-64 and it was 20 points after Modestas Marscionka’s score with five minutes to play. Venice was able to reel off the next 6 points to make it 55-69 but there were only two minutes left and GBA did not let the Italian club any closer the rest of the way.