By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
It was a night to remember in Belgrade.
From the reception for Sasa Obradovic to the return of Luca Vildoza in the lineup and the most important thing for the home fans, Crvena Zvezda (10-9) is back on the winning track after demolishing Monaco (12-7) in one of the best first halves for the Serbian team this season which was enough for a big win 92-68.
“I am happy with the result, but we could play better defense“, said coach Dusko Ivanovic in his dry typical way.
Filip Petrusev had another MVP-level performance with 21 points and six rebounds. Luka Mitrovic followed with 15, Nemanja Nedovic had 11, and Luca Vildoza stopped at nine points in 16 minutes of action.
“I’m happy that we defended home court. I could be better in defense but this is a team win”, said Petrusev.
The hosts have been excellent from the field in the opening 20 minutes, going 12-of-13 from two-point range, 9-of-19 from deep, and 3-of-3 from the line. Monaco, meanwhile, has gone just 3-of-10 on threes.
Mike James has almost half of Monaco’s points with 16, while Zvezda has Nemanja Nedovic and Luka Mitrovic in double figures on 11 and 10 points, which was enough for a big 18-point advantage (54-36).
“We didn’t play any defense, we just let them do whatever they wanted“, said Mike James who scored 26 points in the end, nobody else in Monaco was in double digits.
Monaco tried to make a big push at the start of the third quarter, but it was short-lived. Zvezda struck again, this time Stefan Lazarevic was the executioner. His three-pointer sealed the deal at the end of the third quarter 72-50. The Serbian champions handled business in the last 10 minutes.
“We did not present ourselves in the best light from minute one. We had no control of the game, and the last game took a lot of energy from us“, Monaco coach Sasa Obradovic added.