Cirkovic leads Zemun to win over Venice

Zemun Belgrade started its ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT campaign with a hard-fought 73-77 victory over Umana Reyer Venice in Group B play. Nikola Cirkovic paved the way for Zemun with 32 points while Dorde Dimitrijevic scored 17 points and Nikola Stankovic collected five points and 18 rebounds in helping Zemun improve to 1-0 in the group. Umana Reyer dropped to 0-1 despite 19 points from Riccardo Visconti, 12 points from Leonardo Tote and Michele Antelli and 11 points from Davide Bovo. Riccardo Bolpin added 10 points, nine rebound and seven assists in the loss.

Zemun jumped ahead with the first four points and Dimitrijevic’s three-ball made it 2-7. Bolpin’s free throw trimmed the margin to 8-9 but Milos Bojanovic nailed a three-pointer to make it 8-14. Antelli responded with a basket and Nicholas Groppi’s long ball gave Venice its first lead at 17-16. Bovo’s three-pointer made it 20-18 and the Italian club was up 22-19 after 10 minutes. Cirkovic scored seven points as Zemun started the second quarter on an 0-9 run for a 22-28 lead. Tote’s three-point play tied the game at 28-28 and Venice was up 31-28 on Visconti’s three-pointer. After Zemun had pulled back ahead, Tote scored seven points as Umana Reyer grabbed the lead 39-42 and it was 44-34 after a Visconti three and another Tote basket. The margin was still 47-38 when Cirkovic made a three-pointer and Dimitrijevic converted a three-point play to get Zemun to within 47-44 at halftime.

After Antelli opened the second half with a three-ball, Bojanovic got the Serbian club to within 50-49. But Visconti countered with the next six points and a 56-49 lead. Bojanovic’s free throw snapped a 4:35-minute scoreless stretch and Dimitrijevic scored four points as Zemun used a 0-6 run to close the third quarter and even the game at 58-58. After a Venice basket, Cirkovic tied the game and then gave Zemun its first lead since early in the second quarter 62-60. Antelli fired back with a three-ball and the lead went back and forth three more times with Cirkovic giving Zemun the advantage 65-66. Cirkovic added a three-point play to make it 66-70. Visconti did nail a three-ball to trim the gap to one point, but Aleksa Dobrijevic’s three-pointer with 32 seconds left gave Zemun a 71-76 lead. Visconti missed a three-pointer and Stankovic split two free throws to ice the game.