The forward nailed a career-high five 3-pointers to score 24 points against his former team
Jordan Nwora returns with a bang as Zvezda snaps historic losing streak at Efes
Game Report
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 19 of 38
Regular Season
Anadolu Efes IstanbulEFS
6587
Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet BelgradeCZV
Overview
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Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade closed out 2025 on a sour note, conceding more than 100 points in a bruising road loss at Paris Basketball. It was its sixth defeat in eight away games, with Zvezda’s previous road win dating back to Round 8 at Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv.
Sasa Obradovic’s team badly needed a response in Turkiye, especially given its history against Anadolu Efes Istanbul. Zvezda had never won in Istanbul, and Efes entered the game riding a nine-game winning streak in the head-to-head series.
That streak, however, came to an emphatic end with a 65-87 road win – thanks in large part to a player who made the move from Istanbul to Belgrade last summer.
Jordan Nwora, who joined Efes in 2014, endured an up-and-down 2024–25 campaign before departing for Zvezda. Now 27, the forward has rediscovered his form in Serbia.
He entered Friday’s matchup averaging a team-high 17.0 points per game, having scored in double figures in all but one of his 13 appearances this season. With plenty to prove against his former club, Nwora checked in midway through the first quarter with Efes up 6-3 after holding Zvezda to a single field goal.
Nwora immediately shifted the momentum. A three-point play was followed by his first triple of the night, igniting an 11-0 Zvezda run that flipped the game. The visitors took control and never relinquished it. Nwora scored nine points in the first quarter and added five more before halftime.
He finished with a game-high 24 points in just over 26 minutes, shooting 9-of-12 from the field and 5-of-7 from beyond the arc. He also contributed 5 rebounds and 2 steals.
“[Playing against my former team gave me] a lot of motivation,” Nwora told EuroLeague TV. “Last year had a lot of ups and downs. I’m just happy I was able to come back here and really show how I can play. I didn’t get that chance as much last year.”
Zvezda piled up 28 assists, but as both Nwora and Chima Moneke emphasized, the win was built on defense. The visitors held Efes to just 15 points in the first half, creating a commanding cushion early. Zvezda also recorded 8 steals and forced 19 turnovers.
“Defense tonight is what I’ve been talking about,” Moneke said. “When I said we’re going to the Final Four, this is the team I expected to see. It’s easy to jump off the bandwagon when a team is struggling or going through a learning phase like we did in December. But it takes courage to keep believing. That’s our mentality. We know we’ll figure it out, and tonight was a big step.”
Zvezda opened 2026 in style, snapping the curse with this road win at Efes.
With tough matchups against Valencia Basket and Zalgiris Kaunas looming in the upcoming double-round week, the timing could hardly have been better. As Obradovic put it afterward, when Zvezda plays defense, “we are trouble for anybody.”
