U18 Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade booked its ticket to the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Belgrade first place game by rolling past U18 Tofas Bursa 50-81 to finish Group A play undefeated.
U18 Tofas Bursa 50-81 U18 Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade
The 2014 continental champion finished first at the ANGT Belgrade for eight consecutive years until 2019, which was the start of a three-year streak of not prevailing in its host tournament. Zvezda took control of the game with a 0-15 third quarter run for a 3-0 record. Vladimir Pavlovic led the way with 14 points and 6 assists and Nikola Topic scored 13 points for the winners, who saw all 11 players who played score. Tofas finished with a 2-1 record - including its first two victories in its ANGT history. Berke Buyuktuncel, Kerem Konan and Arda Konuk all tallied 10 points in the loss.
The game was close until Zvezda put together the first run - a 3-10 surge to pull ahead 10-18 with Filip Radakovic scoring four points. The cushion was 14-22 after 10 minutes. Zvezda did not wait long to add another punch with a 4-13 run to pull ahead 21-35. Topic added four points and Zvezda led 32-46 at intermission.
Tofas scored the first four points of the second half to get the deficit down to 36-46. Zvezda shut down any thoughts of a Tofas win though, keeping the Turkish side scoreless for nearly 8 minutes and scoring 15 straight points for a 36-61 advantage. And it was 40-63 after 30 minutes. Zvezda gave up just one point in the first 3 minutes of the fourth quarter and extended the cushion to 41-70. Tofas never threatened again.