New Year, new start: @PartizanBC won against Zadar (@ABA_League)

In front of 6300 people, in “Aleksandar Nikolić” Sports Hall, Partizan NIS won against Croatian team Zadar with a score of 95 – 87, and with this win stopped their losing streak.

The team from Belgrade also had dangerous minutes during the game, but the perfect third quarter was the key moment in the game. In the previous games Partizan played, this quarter was the worst one of all four, but against Zadar it was the best part of the game and the best quarter in this season for Nenad Čanak’s team.

At halftime, Zadar had a lead over Black and Whites, and the score was 31 – 41, but in the first part of the second half Partizan won with a score 39 – 22, so, after 3 quarters the result was 70 – 63 for hosts.

In the last quarter, players from Partizan could easily lose their advantage but somehow they managed to celebrate in the end.

The best player on the court was the captain of Partizan Novica Veličković, whose index rating was 31. He scored 8 points with 8 rebounds and 3 assists. Nigel Williams-Goss also had an excellent scoring night. American player had 22 points and 9 assists. Four more players had double digits points and all four of them scored 10 points each – Patrick Miller, Aleksandar Aranitović, Đoko Šalić and Đorđe Gagić. Besides ten points, newcomer Gagić had also 8 rebounds in the game against team from Croatia.

In Zadar, Joshua Bostic finished the game wth 27 points, 4 assists and 4 rebounds while Mislav Brzoja added 14 points.

Even though Veličković act like a true leader in one moment of the game fans were scared for him. Captain of Partizan had fallen and didn’t get up for a while but everyone were relieved when he finally got up.

“I was punched in my knee, and it hurt too much. I couldn’t move my leg, you know, the one I have already injured before. But when you are under adrenaline you don’t feel the pain, you don’t think about injuries. Now I’m ok”, said Partizan captain after the first victory in 2018.

Novica Veličković also made a comment about third quarter and Partizan’s energy during it.

“We broke them with our energy. This was the best third quarter we played in this season, and that strong fight should be model of behaviour in the upcoming games”, said Veličković.