ALBA rallies to stun Zvezda, 72-87

ALBA Berlin came back from a double-digit first-half deficit to beat host Crvena Zvezda Merdianbet Belgrade 72-87 on Friday night. The victory snapped ALBA's six-game losing streak, raising its record to 7-18 on the season and giving the German club four consecutive wins over Zvezda in the Serbian capital. Meanwhile, Zvezda dropped to 11-14 after leading by 13 points late in the first quarter. But Maodo Lo led ALBA's rally and the visitors used a 4-19 fourth-quarter run to pull away to a double-digit lead and never look back.
Lo shined with 24 points, Louis Olinde scored 11 of his 13 in the first half and also had 7 rebounds, while Gabreile Procida scored 11. Filip Petrusev led Zvezda with 14 points, Nemanja Nedovic netted 11 and Luca Vildoza had 10 in the losing effort.
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Both teams went inside often in the opening minutes before a pair of dunks from Petrusev and a three-pointer from Nikola Ivanovic capped an 11-2 run that opened 20-10 Zvezda lead. A triple from Nedovic helped the hosts to a 25-12 margin but Jonas Mattisseck ended the quarter with a three-pointer before Yanni Wetzell scored 5 points early in the second to make it 27-20. Vildoza's triple restored a double-digit margin for the hosts, but Olinde scored 7 more points before Wetzell and Procida cut the difference to 37-33. Vildoza scored 5 more points as Zvezda held a 44-39 halftime advantage.
ALBA scored the first 6 points of the second half to grab its first lead of the night. Petrusev answered with a three-pointer, but 5 more points from Lo, including a three-point play, kept ALBA in front. The teams kept trading leads as Nedovic and Ivanovic scored for the hosts, but Lo kept scoring for ALBA. Zvezda took a 61-60 edge into the final quarter, but Alba scored the next 10 points behind Jaleen Smith and Procida to open a 61-70 lead. Zvezda needed 4 minutes to score its first points of the quarter, a layup from Ognjen Dobric, but Lo answered with back-to-back three-pointers that helped pushed ALBA'S advantage to 65-79. Petrusev snapped 4-19 ALBA run with a three-point play, but Smith nailed an impossible baseline jumper, Ben Lammers made another defensive stop for the visitors with a blocked shot, and ALBA comfortably closed out the game.