By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Another day, another win for Real Madrid. This time, the Blancos put on a defensive masterclass against Crvena Zvezda on the road to leave Belgrade with a 72 – 58 win and improve their record to a stunning 13-1.
Zvezda dropped to 5-9. The Serbian side was without guard Shabazz Napier who’s about to leave the team as coach Giannis Sfairopoulos confirmed.
Mario Hezonja (17 points, 10 rebounds), Vincent Poirier (14 points), and Eli Ndiaye (10 points) scored in double figures for Real Madrid. Their team dominated the second quarter 14 – 25 to get a 34 – 45 halftime advantage after a close first period (20 – 20) and never looked back.
Red Star lacked the offensive efficiency to respond to their opponents, falling further behind 51 – 70 near the end of the third quarter.
“We know what type of arena this is but we are very familiar with playing in front of this crowd,” Hezonja said. “We came here with a prepared plan and I think we executed it pretty well. Especially later on. It’s always great to play here, also against Partizan.”
A fight with no comeback
At the beginning of the last period, Zvezda managed to keep Real scoreless for the first three minutes but scored just three points and couldn’t even begin a comeback.
Milos Teodosic (14 points, five assists), Luka Mitrovic (14 points), and returnee Adam Hanga (10 points) stood out from Zvezda. “We tried to change things, defenses players, lineups,’ Sfairopoulos said. “They have quality. We made easy mistakes and missed open shots.”
“I’m very proud of my guys,” said Real coach Chus Mateo. “Because we were able to be together in the bad moments of the game in the beginning when we were down by eight. Then we started to play smarter. We turned over the ball too many times but we shared the ball well too.”
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