The hosts led from start to finish in a convincing display
Zvezda bounces back to blast ALBA, 92-71
Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade returned to winning ways in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague by downing ALBA Berlin 92-71 in the Serbian capital in Round 8 on Thursday. Zvezda improved to 4-4 in the regular season standing, breaking a four-game losing streak, while ALBA dropped to 1-7 and remains at the bottom of the standings.
Codi Miller-McIntyre paced the winners with 15 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists. Filip Petrusev added 14 points, Nikola Kalinic 13, Isaiah Canaan 12 and Mike Daum and Uros Plavsic had 10 apiece for Zvezda. Gabriele Procida led ALBA with 25 points. Trevion Williams added 16 while Tim Schneider had 10 for the visitors.
Game Videos
Daum got Zvezda going with a reverse layup. Miller-McIntyre added a jumper and a three-point play for a 7-0 lead. Plavsic hit a jump hook and erased Procida's driving basket with a layup for an 11-2 Zvezda lead. Procida kept pacing ALBA, singlehandedly bringing his team within 15-9. Nemanja Nedovic scored in penetration and Milos Teodosic fed Dejan Davidovac for a backdoor layup. Schneider dunked and Luka Mitrovic scored around the basket before Williams's put-back basket got ALBA a bit closer, 21-14. Davidovac scored in transition to boost Zvezda's lead to 23-14 after 10 minutes.
Martin Hermannsson found his first points early in the second quarter. Canaan made a three-pointer, but so did Elias Rapieque and Procida, which caused Zvezda to call timeout at 26-22. Schneider capped an 0-8 run with a put-back layup. Petrusev came through with a two-handed slam. Schneider followed a layup with an alley-oop dunk to bring the visitors closer, 32-30. Petrusev had 4 points in an 8-0 run that Kalinic capped with a layup-plus-foul for a 40-30 Zvezda lead. Louis Olinde rescued ALBA with a layup and then Yago dos Santos fixed the halftime score at 41-32.
Williams dunked right after the break. After Plavsic and Procida traded layups, Rokas Giedraitis hit a floater. Olinde's put-back layup brought ALBA within 45-38. Williams kept pacing the visitors with a layup but didn't much help. Meanwhile, Kalinic and Miller-McIntyre scored 5 points each in a 10-0 run that broke the game open, 55-40. Williams stayed strong with a layup-plus-foul and Procida matched Plavsic's power basket with a layup. Canaan bettered Williams's floater with a corner triple and Procida took over with a fastbreak dunk that brought ALBA closer, 63-50, after 30 minutes.
Procida find space for an uncontested tip-in early in the fourth quarter. Daum and dos Santos stepped up for Zvezda and after Williams scored down low, Miller-McIntyre and Canaan each found a layup in transition, which led ALBA to call timeout at 72-56. Hermannsson followed Olinde's layup with a three-point play to give ALBA hope at 72-61. Olinde struck from downtown but ALBA struggled to score in the next 2 minutes. Meanwhile, Canaan improved Zvezda's margin to 78-64 79-64 with over 4 minutes lead, enough for the hosts to control the game until the final buzzer.