Sizzling Zvezda with the blowout win over disappointed Virtus

By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net

After the road win against Olympiacos last week, Crvena Zvezda moved closer to the playoffs by beating Segafredo Virtus Bologna in Belgrade.

The Italians are already out of the postseason, and the Serbs got an easy 88-52 win.

Thanks to this result, Zvezda is tied with Bayern for the 5th and the 6th spot of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings with an 18-13 record, one step behind the fourth position and Monaco (19-12).

Dejan Davidovac with 17 points and Filip Petrusev with 16 were the top scorers of the winners.

“You don’t get many easy games in the EuroLeague. Today it was easy because we started good,” Petrusev said. “We had great energy throughout the whole game. We put this game away early. We expected to win this game. The real challenge is on Friday [vs. Real Madrid]. If we can get the one on Friday with our fans, it would be huge and would put us in a great position.”

The Serbs are hosting Real Madrid in two days, then Anadolu Efes and play on the road against Panathinaikos on the last round, having the chance to fight even for the home-court advantage in the playoffs, despite still missing their starting center Joel Bolomboy.

Virtus dropped to 7-24, with Toko Shengelia being the top scorer (13 p.).

“Congratulations to Red Star,” Virtus coach Dusko Ivanovic said. “They are a really great team. They have possibilities to be in the Final Four. We played a very bad game without energy. We have to improve.”

Total domination

Crvena Zvezda needed the home win to move one step closer to the playoffs. It started the game by leading 28-11 after the first quarter and 51-27 at halftime.

The Serbs were dominating behind Dejan Davidovac, who already had 11 points, and Petrusev with 10. Shengelia also had 11 points for Virtus, but he was fighting alone.

The lead jumped to 32 points (69-37) at the end of the third, and there was no coming back for the guests. The biggest lead was 38 points (86-48).

“Congratulations to all the players,” said Zvezda coach Giannis Sfairopoulos. “Everyone who participated helped the team win. We showed great effort defensively and great solidarity on offense the whole game.”

Photo credit: Crvena Zvezda/X