By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Partizan NIS was mostly in control to claim the win, 69-59, against Split on the road.
Zach LeDay paired 15 points with 11 rebounds and also dished out four assists. Alen Smailagic added a second double-double packing 12 points and 15 rebounds in Thursday’s ABA League Regular Season Round 2 opener.
The team coached by Zeljko Obradovic had defeated Zadar in Round 1 and improved to 2-0 in ABA off the Round 2 victory. A couple more ABA games, including another visit to Croatia to face Cibona, before the first 7DAYS EuroCup game. The Serbian powerhouse will collide with the Hamburg Towers in Germany on October 19 to tip off its 2021-22 EuroCup campaign.
Split, coming off the loss to Crvena Zvezda mts in the opening week, went down to 0-2 despite cutting the deficit to six points late in the fourth quarter. Partizan kept its distance for most of the 40 minutes after jumping to an early double-digit lead and managed to finish the job down the stretch.
Croatian guard Toni Perkovic scored a game-high 17 points in the losing effort. Karlo Zganec had five points, 11 rebounds, and three steals for a team-high 20 efficiency rating.
ABA action resumes tomorrow as SC Derby hosts Zadar and FMP takes on Igokea. Krka will face Mornar Bar on Saturday. Sunday fixtures are Cibona versus Mega and Crvena Zvezda against Buducnost VOLI.
Photo Credit: ABA League