U18 Partizan NIS Belgrade grabbed an important victory to start the Euroleague Basketball ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Belgrade by beating U18 Mega Bemax Belgrade 101-98 in overtime to take the driver’s seat in Group B. Marko Pecarski collected 26 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals for a performance index rating of 37 while Aleksandar Davitov scored 18 points and Stevan Karapandzic had 15 points, 4 rebounds and 10 assists. Mega, which reached the ANGT Championship Game last season, dropped its opening game despite 33 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 blocks from Luka Cerovina for a PIR of 45. Altin Islamovic added 18 points and Aleksandar Langovic had 13 points and 12 rebounds in the defeat.

Partizan jumped up 13-7 in the early going and it was 13-11 when Partizan went on a 12-3 run with Karapandzic scoring 5 points for a 25-14 lead. Partizan led 25-16 after 10 minutes. Pecarski opened the second quarter with a three-ball to extend the gap to 12 points. Islamovic came up with 4 points at the other end as Mega cut the gap to 38-32. Cerovina added 6 points to trim it to 45-40 and Partizan was up 49-42 at halftime.

Cerovina converted two three-point plays early in the second half to pull Mega to within 54-50. But Davitkov and Pecarski combined for 13 points in a 16-7 run to go ahead 70-57. Mega answered with the next 7 points and trailed 72-64 after three quarters. Pecarski hit two jumpers and Marko Brekic scored twice as the lead was 84-78. Mega did not give up with Mateja Jovanovic tying it at 85-85. Pecarski twice gave Partizan the lead and Langovic evened it at 89-89 with a free throw with 49 seconds to play. Neither side could score down the stretch with Pecarski missing a shot at the buzzer. Partizan scored the first 7 points of overtime to lead 96-89. Mega did trim the margin to 99-93 but Bogdan Rutesic answered with a big three-pointer to decide the game.