Partizan wins home-opener, tops Bayern 86-78
Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade registered its first win of the season, holding off visiting FC Bayern Munich 86-78 in a packed Belgrade Arena on Tuesday night. Both teams now hold 1-2 records as they head into the second leg of the season's first two-round week.
Partizan took control with 6-for-7 three-point shooting in the first quarter, opening up a double-digit lead, and the margin was as big as 22 points in the second. Bayern rallied and got as close as 6 points late in the fourth quarter, but Partizan's lead was never really in question.
Sterling Brown paced Partizan with 22 points, Carlik Jones scored 14, while Frank Ntilikina, Isaac Bonga and Tyrique Jones scored 13 apiece in victory. Andreas Obst netted 15 points for Bayern, Carsen Edwards scored 13, Nick Weiler-Babb had 12 points, Devin Booker 11 and Shabazz Napier 10 points in defeat.
The two teams traded baskets early on, with a triple from Weiler-Babb and a basket from Obst opening a 6-9 lead. But Bonga netted a triple to get Partizan going. Brown added 5 points, including his second triple, and then Bonga and Ntilikina knocked down back-to-back triples. Tyrique Jones's monster dunk made it 24-11. Danko Brankovic snapped the 13-0 run with a dunk, posterizing Aleksej Pokusevski, before Edwards ended the quarter with a three to make it 24-15.
Another triple from Brown helped the hosts open 32-17 margin, and after Booker had a three-point play, Brown nailed his fourth triple in as many attempts. Tyrique Jones scored inside for a 37-20 lead and after a three-pointer from Obst, Brown and Brandon Davies started an 8-0 run to increase the margin to 45-23. However, Bayern replied with a 2-9 run, which featured 5 more points from Obst, including a three-pointer, as Bayern cut the margin to 49-32 at halftime.
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Edwards had back-to-back triples to start the third quarter, before a dunk from Johannes Voigtmann cut it to 51-41. Bonga and Voigtmann traded triples, and Booker's basket got Bayern within 54-46. But Ntilikina hit a jumper and the hosts made couple of defensive stands before Ntilikina netted a three to fuel an 8-0 run that made it 66-48. Oscar da Silva and Elias Harris managed baskets inside, but Ntilikina's triple put Partizan up 71-52 going into the fourth quarter.
Baskets were few and far between early in the fourth, before Napier banked in a triple, then added another one to cut it to 73-60. Partizan's offense slowed down, and a three-pointer from Weiler-Babb cut it to single digits. A basket from Obst made it a 7-point game, and when Partizan's Brown drove for a layup, Edwards nailed a wide-open corner three that cut the deficit to 78-72. But Iffe Lundberg, who had only had 2 points at that points, drove into the crowd for a three-point play and a 83-74 lead with 1:29 left to secure the outcome.