By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Brad Wanamaker scored 25 points and dished out 5 assists as Darussafaka Dogus beat Crvena Zvezda 78 – 62 and entered the EuroLeague quarterfinals for the first time in the history of the franchise.
Despite putting up a great fight in the vast majority of the regular season and finishing with a 16 – 14 record, Red Star didn’t manage to overcome the absence of Stefan Jovic and lost to a more qualitative squad. Ognjen Kuzmic had 14 points and 6 rebounds.
Darussafaka Dogus lashed out into the game with a 10 – 0 run and closed the first quarter 22 – 11 with Wanamaker lacerating the feeble Crvena Zvezda defense. The Serbian squad finally pulled off some stops in the second but there were not enough to get them back in the match for good.
That happened in the third quarter when Red Star greatly improved its defense and came as close to 52 – 49 forcing Dacka to 12 in the period
Yet the reaction from the hosts arrived in the fourth when they were the ones to stop their opponents’ scoring efforts to once again build a double-digit lead 66 – 55 with five minutes remaining. Good enough for them to win and a margin Red Star couldn’t recover from.