The duo was instrumental in carving out a big lead which Partizan was forced to defend tooth and nail in the home stretch
Partizan leaned on Sterling Brown, Carlik Jones to get the job done
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Regular Season
Round 2 of 38
Regular Season
Partizan Mozzart Bet BelgradePAR
8078
EA7 Emporio Armani MilanEA7
Overview
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Top scorers Sterling Brown and Carlik Jones led Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade to a nerve-jangling 80-78 home win over EA7 Emporio Armani Milan after the hosts were forced to hang on in a dramatic finish, having nearly spilled a 20-point lead.
Brown netted 20 points, including 10 of his team’s opening 12, while Jones chipped in with 15 to go with 6 assists as Partizan fired on all cylinders for 25 minutes before running out of steam in the fourth quarter.
The hosts were effervescent defensively in the first half as they committed no turnovers in the opening 10 minutes and restricted Milan to just 1 offensive board before the interval, having kept the visiting team’s big men at bay.
Milan looked dead and buried as Partizan romped into a 53-33 lead early in the third quarter, but the Italian outfit then found another gear and launched a ferocious fightback which nearly turned the contest on its head in the final minute.
Marko Guduric, who was in patchy form for Serbia at the 2025 FIBA EuroBasket where the tournament favorites crashed out in the Round of 16 against Finland, failed to deliver in crunch time as he missed a game-winning shot on the final buzzer for Milan.
Brown, who won the player of the game award, was delighted with Partizan’s victory which put behind a tough 89-76 loss at Dubai Basketball in the opening round of Europe’s premier club competition.
“It’s always great to come here and perform for our fans,” Brown said in a courtside interview. “We bounced back from the last game and it was a good game tonight for everybody, not just for myself. Good to get one under our belt, we didn’t want to dwell too much on the last one as its’s going to be a long season.”
Carlik Jones echoed Brown’s views and praised Partizan’s diehard fans, who keep generating an electrifying atmosphere in the Belgrade Arena.
“I get the goosebumps every time I go down the tunnel as they keep shoring an amazing amount of passion,” he said. “It’s like having an extra player on the floor. We’ve got to do better with controlling the lead, it was ugly towards the end but we got the win and that’s all that matters to us right now.”
Milan’s sour-looking head coach Ettore Messina wad disappointed after the Italian team fell agonizingly short of doing the double in the Serbian capital, having steamrolled over Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade at the same venue on Tuesday, 82-92.
“It’s the second game in quick succession that we’ve had to face this kind of atmosphere and it’s going to be a long season for everybody,” he said. “After falling behind by 20, we were able to raise the level of our defense and our offense became faster, so I am very happy with how we played the second half.”