Europe: First victory for Partizan, second loss for Red Star

Partizan won in Spain against Bilbao 92 – 96 in the third round of the EuroCup, while their neighbour Red Star lost against Khimki with a score 85 – 78 in the third round of the EuroLeague.

Black and whites didn’t start this season that well but they were working hard in every practice trying not to make same mistakes as in start of the season and their hard work is paying off now. They won against experienced team from Spain and now they have first victory in Europe.

The best players were Novica Veličković and Nigel Williams-Goss who were true leaders during the whole match and they showed younger teammates how to fight for their club. Williams-Goss scored 27 points with 8 rebounds and 3 assists for total index rating 34, while Veličković finished the game with 19 points and 8 rebounds. His index rating was 21. Two more players scored ten or more points for Partizan – Patrick Miller (13 points) and Vanja Marinković (10 points).

For hosts, Axel Hervelle scored 21 points with 6 rebounds, Serbian player Dejan Todorović 17 points, Lucio Redivo 13, Pere Tomas 12 with 7 rebounds and 3 steals and veteran Alex Mumbru finished the game with 10 points and 5 assists.

Next challenge for Partizan will be to beat Cibona in Zagreb in the Round 6 of ABA League and the game is on Friday 27th at 6 p.m.

While Partizan scored their first victory in Europe, Red Star lost in Khimki and it was their second loss after three rounds in EuroLeague. Team from Russia has all 3 victories in this season in the best European club competition.

Red Star was leading most of the time in the first half, but the second half was totally different story. The beginning of the second half was the key moment of the game and in that part Khimki gained lead that Red Star couldn’t overcome.

The best scorer in team from Moscow was James Anderson with 24 points. He added 5 rebounds and 3 assists to his statistics, while Alexei Shved scored 18 points with 5 rebounds and 9 assists. Serbian guard Stefan Marković finished the match with 10 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. Those three were the only players with two digits points in Khimki, while in red Star four players scored more than 10 points.

Milko Bjelica scored 15 points with 5 rebounds, James Feldeine 14 points, Taylor Rochestie added 13 with 5 assists and Mathias Lessort finished the game with 12 points and 8 rebounds.

Now, Red Star is returning to Serbia and all players will have to forget their loss because the next game is on Thursday in Belgrade against Maccabi in the Round 4 of EuroLeague.

Maccabi is traveling to Belgrade with two wins and one loss, but they lost in the last round against Olympiacos Piraeus, in the game where winner wasn’t familiar until very end, with a score of 68 – 69.