U18 Mega Bemax Belgrade defeated U18 Maccabi Teddy Tel Aviv 94-76 to start Group B at the EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Qualifying Tournament Marko Ivkovic Belgrade. Goga Bitadze led Mega with 21 points, 14 rebounds, 2 assists and 5 blocks. Nikola Miskovic chipped in 21 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists. Mihailo Jovicic was just an assist short of a triple double with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists. Amit Ebo paced Maccabi with 26 points and 7 assists, including 6 three-pointers.

Bitadze opened the game with Mega’s first six points, including two big dunks and Jovicic’s steal and layup helped the Serbian side open a 12-3 lead. Ebo hit a nice floater after a cross-over dribble for Maccabi to make it 17-11 but Mega followed with three-pointers from Bitadze and Altin Islamovic to push the gap to 23-11. Maccabi used the three-ball to get back into the game as Tomer Porat and Adam Ben Bassat both knocked down one from outside and Ebo drained two from long range to get Maccabi within 28-24. Ebo and Porat were both on target from outside early in the second to make it 34-31. But Jovicic and Jovan Virijevic combined for eight points in a 12-1 spurt for a 46-32 advantage. Amit Suss came up with a three-point play and Ebo knocked down another long ball, but Miskovic ended the first half with two inside baskets and Mega was ahead 52-40 at halftime. Bitadze began to take more control on both ends once again with two dunks and two blocks to help Mega increase the margin to 61-45. Islamovic followed with a jumper and three-pointer in increasing the advantage to 68-47. Maccabi pulled off a run to close the quarter with 10 straight points as the gap was 68-57 after 30 minutes. Bitadze once again showed his dominance with back-to-back dunks in building an 81-62 cushion. Maccabi tried to make things interesting in the final minutes with eight straight points to make it 87-75 with just more than a minute to play. But Igor Drobnjak nailed a corner three to re-establish a 15-point margin.