Buducnost hangs on to beat Lokomotiv for first win

U18 Buducnost VOLI Podgorica opened its Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Belgrade with a hard-fought 88-84 victory over U18 Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar in Group B. Fedor Zugic led the way with 25 points while Tomislav Ivisic collected 19 points, 15 rebounds and 4 blocks, Eray Buyukcangaz scored 19 points and Zoran Vuceljic added 14 points. Lev Kuzmenko tallied 23 points and fellow reserve Iaroslav Niagu added 15 points and 10 rebounds for Lokomotiv. Mikhail Vedishchev scored 14 points but the rest of the team’s starters combined for only 19 points in the loss.

Zugic scored Buducnost’s first five points and it was 11-2 after 3 minutes with a Milos Stijepovic three-pointer making it 14-4. Lokomotiv followed with the next seven points before a Danilo Ivanovic triple put Buducnost up 21-15. Five quick points from Niagu had the gap to 21-20 after 10 minutes. Danil Sheianov gave Lokomotiv its first lead 21-22 with Buducnost punching back with a 5-0 run. Lokomotiv answered with a 2-8 spurt to reclaim the lead before Ivisic nailed a three-pointer for another lead change. And Buducnost was up 39-37 at the break.

Vedishchev scored five points in the early going of the second half to keep Lokomotiv close at 46-44. A Buyukcangaz triple put Buducnost up 53-44 and an Ivisic three-pointer made it 61-52. Buyukcangaz added four more points later in the quarter as the margin grew to 67-56. Lokomotiv was able to trim it to 67-60 after 30 minutes. Three-pointers by Kuzmenko and Sergei Shchetinin cut the margin down to 67-66. Ivisic countered with two baskets and a Zugic triple made it 76-68. Lokomotiv would not go away with Kuzmenko’s three-pointer trimming the gap to 79-75. Buducnost continued to use the long ball with Buyukcangaz, Zugic and Vuceljic all hitting triples for an 88-79 advantage with 83 seconds left. And it was just too big of a gap to come back from for the Russian side.