By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Crvena Zvezda played with fire but emerged victorious in Paris getting the 80-77 win in the French capital.
Nemanja Nedovic with 21 points was the top scorer of the Serbs, followed by Isaiah Canaan who had 14. Kalinic scored nine points, including a clutch three-pointer.
From the losing side, TJ Shorts with 16 points tried his best. It wasn’t enough and Paris couldn’t take advantage of Milos Teodosic missing the game.
The Serb point guard is expected to miss one more week of action. “We showed our character and managed to get an important road win”, said Zvezda coach Giannis Sfairopoulos.
Nadir Hifi and Maodo Lo scored 12 points each for the French side.
Decided on details
Paris managed to get a 43-35 halftime lead with Maodo Lo and TJ Shorts scoring 10 points each thanks to a 17-5 run in the last five minutes of the second period.
Before that Zvezda was up by four (30-26), even if the hosts led for most of the first period which ended with the French side up by one (18-17).
However, the Serbs came back in the third period and tied the score at 58 with Nedovic leading the charge.
The dogfight continued with Zvezda getting a crucial five-point cushion (77-72) with two minutes left. With the game on the line, the Serbs missed four shots, but Paris couldn’t get closer than two points with 11 seconds left (77-75).
Cody Miller McIntire made one of two free throws (78-75), Hifi answered with two more (78-77) and Canaan sealed the win with two free throws (80-77).
Photo credit: EuroLeague