Partizan lost against Red Star in a full black and white hall (@ABA_League), Serbia 24

Red Star won in the first derby against Partizan with a score 85 – 100 in front of the black and white crowd and made fifth victory in ABA League, while this was third loss for Miroslav Nikolić’s team.

“Aleksandar Nikolić” hall was in black and white colours but there were about 500 Red Star fans also. One of the supporters of black and whites was Bastian Schweinsteiger, German football player who also played 121 for his country and now is a member of Chicago Fire Soccer Club in MLS (Major League Soccer).

The best scorer for winning team was Milko Bjelica with 29 points. He also added 6 rebounds to his statistics for 35 efficiency index. The other Red Star players with double digits points were James Feldeine (15), Taylor Rochestie (14), Pero Antić (13), Nemanja Dangubić (12) and Mathias Lessort (11).

In Partizan, Novica Veličković scored 18 points, Nigel Williams-Goss added 17, Patrick Miller 11 with 11 assists, and Samardo Samuels finished the game with 11.

Marko Čakarević from Partizan was injured during the game and he only played about 8 minutes. Due to his injury defence was weak point for black and whites because he is the best defensive player in “Muta” Nikolić’s squad.

Guests took first attack, first points (three points shot) and first serious lead after Dangubić made three points shot 5 minutes before the end of the first quarter (9 – 16). Until the end Red Star managed to keep the lead and first part of the match finished with 5 points leads for red and whites (21 – 26).

At the beginning of the second quarter Dušan Alempijević’s team had first double digits lead 23 – 34, but soon Partizan got back in the game and about 4 minutes before the end result was 36 – 42 for Red Star. And then 1 minute before the end of this part Partizan was charged with a technical fault and allowed Red Star players to take 9 points lead and first half finished with the result 42 – 53. Last shot was made by Bjelica (jump shot).

After first half best scorer for Red Star was Milko Bjelica with 11 points, while Williams-Goss made 13 points for Partizan. Best assistants were Miller for black and whites and Rochester for red and whites. Both players assisted five times each.

Both team had mini series in the third quarter but in the end Red Star finished that part of the game leading by 11 (63 – 74) and according to first three quarters it was a big lead because Partizan never managed to take the lead.

Last quarter started with Vanja Marinković three points shot and in the first minute Partizan was losing by 6 (70 – 76). But again Red Star started to play aggressively and about six minutes before the end of the match guests were leading 74 – 89. And red and whites managed to make 100 points while home team finished the game with 84.

After the game the best scorer Bjelica was satisfied with victory and how his team played in this hot atmosphere.

“Good evening everyone. This was very important game for us because we unexpectedly lost 2 games in regional league. We reacted very well and after the lost against Bamberg in EuroLeague we did everything we planned to do on court. Partizan is very tough opponent, very good squad and I will use this opportunity to congratulate them on fair play”, said Milko, who emphasized that this was team victory and that every player played his part in it.

“Tonight I scored most points, but in some other games some other players were the best scorers. The most important is our team played and that we played like that and those shots were all because of the excellent attacks and by reading their defense. Fortunately, I managed to use that in our advantage and helped my team to win”, said Bjelica after the first win in derby against Partizan.

Serbia: Đorđević announced 24 names

Head coach of Serbian national team Aleksandar Đorđević cut the previous list with 35 names and announced 24 basketball players that will prepare for the first games of World Cup qualification tournament.

Serbian senior national team will gather on November 21st 2017 in hotel Crown Plaza in Belgrade and in “Aleksandar Nikolić” Hall guys will prepare for the games they will play in the same gym. First step is the match with Austria on Friday, November 24th. Three days later, they are expecting new challenge against Georgia, on Monday, November 27th. Both games are starting at 8 p.m.

In order to accomplish the goal, and that is booking a ticket for China, to participate in World Cup 2019, Serbian head coach Aleksandar Đorđević announced 24 names:

Stefan Jović (Munich), Stefan Peno (Berlin), Ilija Đoković (Borac Čačak), Milenko Tepić (New Basket Brindisi), Aleksa Radanov (FMP), Aleksa Avramović (Pallacanestro Varese), Ivan Paunić (Tofas) Vanja Marinković (Partizan NIS), Dejan Todorović (Bilbao Basket), Marko Simonović (Zenit Saint Petersburg), Milan Mačvan (Munich), Sava Lešić (Oettinger Rockets), Stefan Birčević (Istanbul BSB), Miroslav Raduljica (Jiangsu Dragons from China), Đorđe Gagić (Yesilgiresun Belediye), Vasilije Micić (Zalgiris Kaunas), Nemanja Nedović (Malaga), Branko Lazić (Crvena zvezda MTS), Dragan Milosavljević (Malaga), Marko Gudurić (Fenerbahce), Nemanja Dangubić (Crvena zvezda MTS), Nikola Milutinov (Olympiacos Piraeus), Dejan Musli (Malaga) and Nikola Jovanović (Crvena zvezda MTS).