Crvena Zvezda goes for 9th straight ANGT Belgrade win

Feb 19, 2019 by David Hein, Euroleague.net Print
Crvena Zvezda goes for 9th straight ANGT Belgrade win

U18 Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade will be aiming to win its ninth straight Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Belgrade and make another trip to the ANGT Finals. The 2014 continental champion hopes to extend its ANGT Belgrade winning streak to 39 games and book a ticket to the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four in May in Vitoria-Gasteiz. Among the teams shooting to dethrone Zvezda in the games in the Serbian capital from February 22-24 are U18 Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, which reached the ANGT Championship Game in 2012, and U18 Mega Bemax Belgrade, the runner-up at the ANGT Finals in 2017. The other teams are U18 Cedevita Zagreb, U18 Olympiacos Piraeus, U18 Petrol Olimpija Ljubljana, U18 Spars Sarajevo and U18 Umana Reyer Venice. The eight teams are split into two groups that will play round-robin style with the top-placed teams in each group facing off in the first-place game for a spot in the ANGT Finals along with ANGT Valencia winner U18 Valencia Basket, ANGT Munich champ U18 Real Madrid and ANGT Kaunas winner U18 Zalgiris Kaunas. The two teams that finish second in the groups will play in the third-place game, the third-placed teams from the groups will square off in the fifth-place game and the two fourth-placed teams will play in the seventh-place game.

Group A includes Cedevita, Olympiacos, Venice and Zvezda. Croatia's Cedevita returns to the competition after not playing last season, snapping a streak of seven straight years dating back to the 2010-11 campaign. Its most recent appearance was in 2017 at ANGT L’Hospitalet where it finished fifth. Greek giant Olympiacos made its return to the competition last season, finishing fourth at ANGT Munich in its first appearance since 2007. Italy's Venice is back for the fourth time; it placed sixth at ANGT Belgrade last season after playing at ANGT Rome in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons. Those three teams will be shooting to knock off Zvezda. Its last defeat came at the hands of U18 Beovuk 72 in the 2010-11 season.

Group B includes Fenerbahce, Mega. Olimpija and Spars. Fenerbahce, which lost to U18 Rytas Vilnius in the ANGT Championship Game in 2012, is playing in the competition for the ninth straight season. Its last four campaigns were at ANGT Kaunas. Last year the Turkish powerhouse finished eighth. Mega is two seasons removed from playing in the ANGT Championship Game and losing to U18 CFBB Paris. The Serbian club finished third last season after appearing in the ANGT Belgrade first-place game the previous campaign. This will be Mega's seventh appearance in the competition. Slovenian side Olimpija makes its return to the event after missing last season and will be playing a 12th time. It last played at ANGT L'Hospitalet in 2016-17 and finished seventh. It is now seven straight appearances for Bosnia and Herzegovina's Spars, which has played in Belgrade the last three seasons. It finished seventh last year and played in the first-place game in 2015-16.