U18 Stellazzurra Basketball Academy Rome tipped off its EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Qualifying Tournament Marko Ivkovic Belgrade with a hard-fought 65-72 victory over U18 U18 Partizan Belgrade in Group A. Michele Ebeling paced Stellazzurra with 17 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals while Jordan Bayehe collected 13 points and 8 rebounds in the win. Tadija Tadic was the leading scorer for Partizan.

Ebeling started the game for Stellazzurra with a bang, throwing down a dunk and hitting the and-one. Aleksa Popovic answered with a layup and dunk as Partizan was down 6-7. Michele Serpilli was playing big at both ends for Stellazzurra with two blocks, a steal and a three-pointer for a 6-10 lead. Partizan got a jumper and three-pointer from Tadic in a 9-1 spurt to pull ahead 15-11 and the lead was 15-13 after 10 minutes. Mateja Jovanovic knocked down a three-pointer to start the second and push the lead to 18-13 and triples from Aleksa Popovic and Tadic kept Partizan up 29-22. Stellazzurra finished the first half with a 0-9 run with Dorde Pazin’s three-pointer just before the end of the half giving the Italian side a 29-31 lead at the break. The push continued after the re-start with Ebeling finishing twice at the rim and Serpilli nailing another three-ball with the lead swelling to 31-40. Ljubo Popovic came off the Partizan bench and scored eight points to cut the deficit to 41-44. It was 41-46 after 30 minutes. Partizan was keeping it close and Jovanovic’s three-pointer made it 50-53. But Stellazzurra was able to create turnovers and get out and run with Pazin and Ebeling combining for nine points in a 0-13 spurt for a 50-66 advantage with less than 4 minutes left. Partizan refused to go away and went on a 15-2 run with Dusan Tanaskovic’s free throws with 17 seconds cutting the gap to 65-68. Trapani answered with one of two free throws and Stellazzurra got the offensive rebound for the win.