U18 Valencia Basket collected its first victory of the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Belgrade by knocking off U18 Partizan NIS Belgrade 82-105 and will play for fifth place. Sergio De Larrea poured in 31 points to go with 7 rebounds, 8 assists and 4 steals for an index rating of 41 while Pablo Luengo scored 17 points and Lucas Mari added 16 points, 2 rebounds, 7 assists, 6 steals and 2 blocks for Valencia, which finished Group A play with a 1-2 record. Partizan, which finished first in the ANGT Belgrade in 2020, will play for seventh place after finishing round robin play with a 0-3 record. Viktor Mikic collected 19 points and 12 rebounds, Ognjen Stankovic and Savo Drezgic both had 15 points and Bogdan Zagradanin had 11 points in the loss.
U18 Partizan NIS Belgrade 82-105 U18 Valencia Basket
The game went back and forth in the first quarter with Mikic scoring six points as Partizan led 12-8. After Valencia pulled ahead, Zagradanin hit two three-pointers and Drezgic connected on one for a 21-18 lead, which was 23-22 after 10 minutes. Mikic added five more points and Partizan was up 32-29. Valencia started hitting from outside with De Larrea and Pablo Silla both draining one triple and Luengo knocking down three three-pointers and a three-point play for a 42-52 cushion. And the score was 46-54 at the break.
Partizan had a good start to the second half and the deficit was only 52-56 when Valencia reeled off 11 straight points for a 52-67 advantage. The margin grew to 17 points in the quarter and Valencia led 61-78 after 30 minutes. Partizan continued to fight and got the deficit to 12 points in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter. But Valencia was not to be stopped and led 72-92 and rolled on.