Zvezda shines on both ends to beat Monaco, 92-68

Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade improved its record under Dusko Ivanovic to 9-3 and 10-9 overall after beating AS Monaco 92-68 at Aleksandar Nikolic Hall on Thursday evening. Monaco has now lost three straight games on the road and dropped to 12-7.
Filip Petrusev scored a team-high 21 points for Zvezda, who also had Luka Mitrovic score 15, Nemanja Nedovic add 11 and Ognjen Dobric contribute 10. Luca Vildoza, making his first return after a two-game absence due to injury, finished with 9 points, 3 assists and 3 steals. Monaco star Mike James had a game-high 26 points, but the next highest scorer for the visitors was John Brown with 7.
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Zvezda got off to a fast start and opened a 4-0 lead, keeping Monaco scoreless inside the opening 2 and a half minutes of the game. Perhaps unexpectedly, the player who then came to the fore for the visitors was Mike James, who scored all of his team's 9 points to make it a tied game, 9-9, at the midway point in the quarter. Vildoza returned to the floor after recovering from an injury with 3:40 left in the opening period, and he soon helped his team establish its biggest lead of the game, 21-10, after nailing a triple and providing a wonderful assist for Dobric. At the close of the first 10 minutes, Zvezda led 23-15.
The hosts continued to put their foot on the gas in the first 3 and a half minutes of the second quarter, with Dobric and Markovic hitting a three-pointer apiece before Nedovic saw 2 of his own drop to further widen the gap, 35-22. Branko Lazic, celebrating his 34th birthday today, made a triple himself to give Zvezda its largest lead of the game, 47-29, with 2:48 remaining in the quarter. Heading into the break, it was 54-36, with Zvezda having dominated the opening 20 minutes of action.
Monaco reacted by scoring 5 straight points to start the second half, but that only woke Zvezda up once again. Mitrovic scored 5 points in a 7-4 run to reestablish control, 61-45. Vildoza then began to take over, with his triple capping an 8-0 outburst by the hosts to go up by 19 points, 69-50, and blow the roof off Aleksandar Nikolic Hall. In the final stages of the quarter, Stefan Lazarevic became the seventh Zvezda to score a three-pointer after hitting from deep, which gave Coach Ivanovic's team a 22-point cushion heading into the final 10 minutes.
The fourth quarter became a celebration of Zvezda, with Vildoza and Petrusev running the show. The latter, in particular, scored 9 points in the last quarter to cap off an excellent night for Zvezda. The hosts swelled their lead to as much as 25 points, 92-67, in the final minute, before eventually running out as 92-68 victors.