U18 Zalgiris’ effort not enough against Zvezda 0

U18 Crvena Zvezda Belgrade remained alive in the race for a second Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament title with a thrilling 65-63 victory over U18 Zalgiris Kaunas to start Day 2 action of the 2021 ANGT Finals.

The 2014 continental champion Zvezda wasted a 16-point lead and needed to come back from five points down with 2 minutes remaining as Ognjen Matovic scored twice in the final 45 seconds for the Group A win to move to 1-1.

Nikola Topic led the way with 16 points with Nikola Saranovic collecting 12 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists and 5 steals. Filip Brankovic added 11 points and Matovic finished with 10 points for the Serbian side.

The 2003 and 2007 champion Zalgiris gave up 17 points on the fastbreak to Zvezda. Paulius Murauskas paced Zalgiris with 13 points while Dovydas Butka had 12 points and Liutauras Lelevicius scored 10 points.

Saranovic started the game with the first four points for Zvezda and Zalgiris took its first lead at 8-9 on a three-point play from Lelevicius. The low-scoring first quarter ended with Zvezda ahead 14-11. After Ugnius Jarusevicius’ score got it to a one-point game, Zvevzda went on a big run as Lazar Gagic drained two three-pointers in a 9-0 surge over more than 4 minutes and Marko Mihailovic picked up four points in an 8-0 spurt to extend the margin to 31-15. Dovydas Butka did hit from long range to help Zalgiris trim it to 33-22 at the break.

Zalgiris had the better start to the second half with Murauskas collecting seven points to make it 37-29. Brankoic answered with a triple and the captain added a layup to increase the cushion to 48-33. Zvezda’s offense suddenly dried up with just one basket in the final 4:47 minutes as Zalgiris closed the third quarter on a 2-14 run to trim it to 50-47.

The Lithuanians continued its strong run as both Dovydas Butka and Dominykas Butka hit three-pointers for a 56-61 lead with 4 minutes left in the game. Topic knocked down a three-pointer to make it 61-63 and then Matovic went coast to coast after a rebound to knot the game at 63-63 with 45 seconds to play. Zvezda stole the ensuing inbounds pass after a timeout and Matovic knocked down a jumper with 27 seconds remaining for the lead. Kajus Kublickas and Lelevicius missed shots in the final moments and Zvedza remained alive for the ANGT Championship Game.