By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Chimezie Metu and Raul Neto returned to action for FC Barcelona, but in the end, Dejan Davidovac stole the show and gave Crvena Zvezda the 78-74 win over the Catalans.
The game included 20 lead changes, however, Zvezda closed it the right way, getting into a tie with Efes and Zalgiris at 10-8 between the 6th and the 8th spot in the standings.
On the contrary, Barcelona after getting defeated at home dropped to 9-9, tied with Real Madrid and Milan.
Filip Petrusev with 17 points was the top scorer of the winners, Nikola Kalinic added 12 against his former team, and Mike Daum (photo) had 11, but Davidovac with seven points and only one made shot decided the game.
“This is how it looks like when we are solid for 40 minutes, we showed character and got the win that we should have got against Barcelona in Belgrade”, said Petrusev after the game with Zvezda prevailing despite still missing Milos Teodosic.
Metu with 16 points was the top scorer of Barcelona and Kevin Punter added 13.
A big shot by Davidovac
The game started with a 10-0 run for Barcelona and Metu scoring eight points, only for Zvezda to react with their own 11-0 run, taking the 11-10 lead and proving that they mean business.
At the end of the first quarter, the Serbs were up 19-15 and even built a 32-25 advantage. However, Barcelona reacted and got the 35-34 lead with a 10-2 run to end the first half as Kevin Punter scored 13 points in 14 minutes of action and Jan Vesely became the 6th player in EuroLeague history that reached the 4.000 points milestone.
Zvezda opened the third period with a quick 7-0 run (41-35) to take the lead back. Barcelona returned the favor with a 9-2 partial score (44-43) and closed the third period leading by three (59-56) thanks to a three at the buzzer by Dario Brizuela.
Still, nobody could create distance, and with 34 seconds left, the score was tied at 74. Dejan Davidovic’s first shot of the game gave Zvezda a 77-74 lead, and Punter lost the ball in the next play with seven seconds left, also losing Barcelona’s last chance.
Nemanja Nedovic was fouled and made one of two (78-74) with five seconds left and the game was over.
Photo credit: EuroLeague