U18 Partizan NIS Belgrade booked its ticket into the final of the Euroleague Basketball ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Belgrade by beating U18 GBA Prague 63-78 to remain undefeated in Group B. Marko Pecarski collected 28 points and 10 rebounds for Partizan, which reached the Belgrade final for the third time after losing to U18 Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade in 2012 and 2015. Aleksandar Davitkov added 17 points for Partizan in improving to a 2-0 mark. Partizan awaits the winner of the game between Zvezda and U18 Anadolu Efes Istanbul later Saturday as to whom it will play in Sunday’s final at Zeleznik Hall. GBA dropped to 1-1 in the group despite Lubos Kovar scoring 15 points to go with 9 rebounds and 2 blocks.

Pecarski scored 4 points as Partizan opened the game with the first nine points. GBA nearly went 4 minutes without a point until Tomas Mikyska hit a jumper and Andree Loigu’s three-pointer trimmed the gap to 8-11. It was within 12-15 when Bogdan Rutesic nailed a three-pointer to start an 0-9 surge and Partizan was up 14-24 after 10 minutes. Pecarski added 5 more points early in the second quarter as the lead increased to 14-31. Stepan Borovka scored 5 points for GBA and Kovar nailed a three-ball but the deficit was still 14 points at 24-38. But GBA just could not get defensive stops with Pecarski and Marko Brekic both hitting 4 points and Partizan went into the break up 30-46.

The advantage was 22 points early in the second half 30-52 and two scores from Mikyska made it 34-52. Stopping Partizan was not in the cards though for the Prague side, which trailed 39-62 though the deficit was trimmed to 44-62 after 30 minutes. Pecarski made sure GBA would not start well in the fourth with 5 points in an 0-7 run at the beginning of the quarter. GBA finally began to make up ground with three-pointers by Modestas Marscionka and Filip Novotny and Matus Skuben’s score cut the gap to 60-73. But there was less than 2 minutes left and the game had already been decided.