Mega carries early lead to win over Maccabi, third place

U18 Mega Bemax Belgrade clinched third place at the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Belgrade by defeating U18 Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv 80-96. Mihailo Musikic was the top scorer with 26 points for Mega, which finished in first place at the ANGT Belgrade last season. Luka Paunovic chipped in 20 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists and Nikola Jovic contributed 16 points, 5 assists and 2 blocks for the winners. Harel Rinski scored 21 points for Maccabi, Amit Aharoni collected 11 points, 8 rebounds and 14 assists and Nadav Sahar had 10 points in the loss.

Musikic and Paunovic both hit threes for an early 2-8 lead and Mega poured on a 3-17 run with five players scoring for a 7-25 lead. Paunovic added another three and the Belgrade team went up 16-34 after 10 minutes. Ivan Pavicevic scored 4 points as the advantage swelled to 16-40. Maccabi finally scored after nearly 3 minutes with Sahar getting 4 points and Rinski downing 9 points, but the Israeli side could not cut much into the deficit and trailed 33-57 at the break. Yuval Levin and Rinski both hit triples early in the second half, but Maccabi could only pull within 43-61 and could not come up with enough defensive stops. Another Rinski triple made it 50-67 before Jovic answered with a three. Maccabi closed the quarter with 6 straight points to make it 56-72 after 30 minutes. Maccabi came out strong in the fourth quarter with Aharoni, Niv Nachshon and Niv Avidan hitting three-pointers on three straight possessions to get within 67-74. Paunovic ended the run with three-pointers and the margin was up to 69-82. Rinski managed another triple, but Musikic tallied 7 points for Mega to lock up the win.