Zvezda hit century mark in blowout of Venice

U18 Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade remained perfect at the Adidas Next Generation Tournament Belgrade with a 69-100 blowout victory over U18 Umana Reyer Venice in Group A. Marko Pavicevic scored 30 points on 11/12 field goal attempts and 8/13 free throws to go with 5 rebounds and 2 blocks for a performance index rating of 35 as Zvezda improved to 2-0 with its 37th straight victory at the ANGT Belgrade, dating back to 2011. Nemanja Popovic and Bojan Tomasevic both scored 16 points for the 2014 continental champion and Lazar Zivanovic added 12 points. Davide Casarin tallied 27 points with 6 three-pointers to lead Venice, which dropped to 1-1 in the group. Giulio Candotto added 13 points and 5 assists and Leonardo Biancotto scored 11 points.

Zivanovic picked up 5 quick points as Zvezda jumped ahead 5-13 in the early going. The lead was 8-18 and then 11-22 for the host side before two three-pointers from Casarin to make it 18-27. Three-balls from Biancotto and Nicola Berdini had Venice to within 24-30 after 10 minutes. Popovic scored 4 points to spark an 0-11 start to the second quarter for a 24-41 lead before Venice finally scored after 3:30 minutes. Casarin tallied seven points to bring Venice within 31-43, but Zvezda got six more points from Popovic in a 3-14 run for a 33-57 advantage, which was 37-59 at halftime. Venice scored the first three points of the second half and Giovanni Bellato’s basket made it 44-62. But Tomasevic and Pavicevic combined for all 12 points in a 2-12 run for a 46-74 advantage. And it was 51-76 after 30 minutes. Casarin tried to get Venice close with 3 fourth quarter three-pointers to make it 65-84, but Venice scored just 4 points over the final 6:24 minutes as the host side closed the game on a 4-16 run.