Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade has improved to 3-6 on the season after beating ALBA Berlin 84-88 in overtime at Mercedes-Benz Arena on Tuesday night. This defeat is ALBA's sixth straight, which means it is now also 3-6.
Zvezda records road win to compound ALBA's misery
Luka Vildoza and Nemanja Nedovic led the way for Zvezda, with the former scoring 21 points while the latter added 17. Luka Mitrovic also chipped in with 15 points. ALBA's Jaleen Smith had a career-high 23 points, but ultimately it proved to be in vain. Ben Lammers, Luke Sikma and Yovel Zoosman got into double figures for the hosts, scoring 12, 10 and 10 points, respectively. The big issue for ALBA is that it had a very disappointing night from the free-throw line, making 13-of-25 attempts (52.0%), while it also committed 21 turnovers.
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The game got off to a fast start for Zvezda, as it raced out to a 0-5 lead. From there, ALBA woke up and established a six-point advantage at 17-11, before a Zvezda resurgence saw it finish the first 10 minutes ahead by one point, 17-20. Zvezda held the lead in the opening stages of the second quarter, but then Sikma began to put his fingerprints on the game and helped ALBA take control before the break, with the hosts leading 40-37 at halftime. ALBA was able to keep the lead for almost the entire third quarter, extending its gap over Zvezda to nine points at 52-43 after a Ben Lammers three-pointer. Yet, the visitors kept coming back and managed to tie things up at 55-55 with 1:03 remaining, as Ognjen Dobric scored a two-pointer after a Filip Petrusev block on the other end of the floor. However, an effort play by Johannes Thiemann saw the hosts enter the fourth quarter with a narrow advantage, 57-55. It was once again a case of ALBA staying ahead of Zvezda for the large bulk of the fourth quarter, but a Vildoza three-pointer gave the visitors the chance to see out the final 1:22 with the lead, 74-75. Zoosman went to the free-throw line for ALBA at 1:04 with an opportunity to give the hosts the lead, but the team's problems from the stripe continued, as he went 1-for-2. Neither team could score in the remainder of the game, and then the early part of overtime seemed to be going the way of ALBA. Zoosman hit a three-pointer to make it 78-75, but Mitrovic continued Zvezda's 100% night from the line at that point to pull his team within one point, 78-77. The problems that ALBA had from the free-throw line refused to go away, however, with Sikma and Smith both going 1-for-2 as the hosts' lead extended to three points. From there, things began to fall apart for Zvezda, as Nedovic took over the game and scored five of his team's last 11 points en route to an 84-88 victory.