Srzentic outburst carries Mega to easy victory
Mega eases to opening win over Panathinaikos
U18 Mega MIS Belgrade opened the Adidas NextGen EuroLeague Istanbul with a convincing 93-57 victory over U18 Panathinaikos Athens in Group A. The 2022 continental champion dominated from the start and Panathinaikos never challenged.
Ognjen Srzentic played at another level for Mega with 29 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists for an index rating of 37 in just 22 minutes. Pavle Backo scored 12 points and Petar Ostojic and Vukasin Musikic both had 10 points and 8 rebounds for the winning side. Christos Georgas scored 12 points and Iason Binis had 9 points and 10 rebounds in the loss.
Mega pulled away for the first time with a 9-0 run to lead 16-5. The Serbian side twice pushed the lead to 12 points and led 24-14 after 10 minutes. Mega needed more than 2 minutes to score in the second quarter but also held Panathinaikos to just two points in the first 5 minutes in opening a 33-16 advantage. The lead extended to over 20 points for the first time at 39-18 and the score was 48-24 at halftime.
Mega did not let up in the second half pushing the lead to 30 points at 58-28 and it was 72-32 with 2 minutes left in the third as Mega was just coasting up 78-37 after 30 minutes. Mega temporarily increased the margin to 43 at 78-35 - before Panathinaikos fought to within 80-42. But the game had long been decided.