


With the help of 20,000 leather-lunged fans at Stark Arena, Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade inched closer to the playoffs with an impressive 104-90 victory over mighty Real Madrid on Friday. The point total was Partizan's season high and the third-most in club history. The host led most of the night and by as many as 20 points in the fourth quarter before Real cut into deficit late. Partizan improved to 18-14 and now needs either a win in its last two games or a loss by either Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz or Zalgiris Kaunas to reach the playoffs.
Among six double-digit scorers, Kevin Punter had 16 points and 6 assists and Mathias Lessort collected 16 points and 8 rebounds. Dante Exum added 15 points, James Nunnally 14, Alen Smailagic 11 and Ioannis Papapetrou 10 in victory. Dzanan Musa scored 22 for Real while Gabriel Deck and Mario Hezonja had 17 apiece, and Adam Hanga 10. The loss dropped Real to third place at 22-10, the same record as its archrival FC Barcelona, which holds the tiebreak advantage between them.
Partizan was respecting Walter Tavares early, as the Real big man had 2 early blocks. The visitors got three-point plays from Tavares and Musa to open a 13-18 lead. Papapetrou give the hosts a lift, but Musa made sure Real led 21-23 after 10 minutes. Exum took over in the second quarter with a three-pointer and a three-point play to help Partizan go up 31-27. And once it got ahead, Partizan kept going. After Rudy Fernandez hit a transition triple to make it 35-34 with 4:32 left in the half, head coach Zeljko Obradovic called a timeout after which Partizan did not allow a single field goal the rest of the quarter. Punter and Nunnally combined to score 12 of Partizan's 14 points on the way to a 49-38 halftime lead.
Aleksa Avramovic opened the third quarter with a three-pointer and Punter had a three-point play, but they were matched by Hezonja and Musa as the visitors drew within 61-56. Exum answered with a triple and a fastbreak layup to quickly turn the momentum around. Hezonja knocked down 2 more threes, but Lessort was doing the damage inside on the other end and the hosts took 78-72 into the final 10 minutes. Partizan then scored the first 6 points of the fourth quarter, including a triple from Zach LeDay. Deck scored twice from close range before a triple from Smailagic sparked a 9-0 run, which included a fastbreak dunk from Nunnally. Punter's triple made it 98-78 and Partizan was well on its way to victory.