Buducnost scored a crucial 76-65 win over Antwerp Giants in Group E on Tuesday night in Podgorica, Montenegro. The result sees head coach Dejan Radonjic’s squad improve to 5-2 for second position in the group, while Antwerp drops to 2-5. Next week Buducnost will look to clinch a spot in the elimination rounds when it hosts Swiss champion Benetton Fribourg, while Antwerp welcomes Hapoel Galil Elyon. The game was close into the fourth quarter, but Nikola Otasevic and Nemanja Gordic drilled threes during a 10-0 run that put the hosts up 71-58 and sealed the win. Captain Ivan Maras led Buducnost with 15 points, Bojan Bakic added 13 and Vladimir Micov chipped in with 11. Brandon Gay scored 18 and Ian Hanavan added 14 for Antwerp in defeat.

Buducnost controlled the paint in the early going and was very efficient from the perimeter as Micov netted 6 points. However Gay kept the visitors in the game. The hosts used a 9-2 run in the start of the second quarter to build a 27-17 lead. However Hanavan, former Buducnost player Mladen Sekularac and Aleksander Lichodzijewski pieced together a 5-17 Antwerp charge, sealed with Ryan Sears’s three free throws to take a 32- 34 lead. Maras, Vladimir Dasic and Bakic answered for the hosts to take a 37-36 halftime advantage. Gay bombed from perimeter and put Antwerp ahead at the opening of third period. Buducnost came right back with a 7-0 run in next three minutes. Still Antwerp dug deep and didn’t allow the local side to get a bigger advantage. Antwerp punished Buducnost for every mistake and equaled the score at 49-49 late in the third. Bakic then scored 6 points, Micov 3 and Otasevic his first for a 59-53 lead at the end of the third quarter. Buducnost made a decisive 10-0 run in the first part of the fourth quarter to get up 71-58. Otasevic and Gordic hit from beyond the arc and Dasic and Bakic added 2 points each allowing the home fans to begin celebrating early.