Mega Leks rallies, wins seventh place

Mega Leks came back from a 12-point second half deficit to beat Umana Reyer Venice 89-85 and finish in seventh place at the ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Belgrade qualifier. Luka Vulikic collected 29 points, seven rebounds and eight assists for Mega while Vukadin Milicevic had 18 points and six steals, Novak Music collected 11 points, six rebounds and four assists, and Srdan Janetic chipped in 11 points. Riccardo Bolpin paced Venice with 24 points while Leonardo Tote and Riccardo Visconti both had 15 points.

Music scored five points as Mega opened a 7-2 lead. Vulikic pushed the margin to 11-4. Tote had two baskets and Visconti nailed a three-ball as Venice knotted the game at 15-15. And two Sebastiano Crivellari free throws gave the Italian club its first lead 17-18. Vulikic put Mega back ahead 20-18 and that was the score after 10 minutes. Aleksa Cabrilo’s free throw made it 23-18 and the Mega lead was still 25-20 when Bolpin scored four points and Davide Bovo knocked down a three-ball in a 1-13 run to put Venice ahead 26-33. Jovan Vojinovic and Janketic scored to get Mega to within 32-34 but Visconti scored a big basket and Bovo nailed a three just before the buzzer to give Venice a 35-45 lead at intermission.

Bolpin started the second half scoring in pushing the lead to 12 points - 35-47. Luka Vukojicic converted a three-point play and nailed a three-ball to trim the gap to 45-47 and Milicevic’s layup made it 49-50. After Tote’s basket pushed the margin back to 49-55, Cabrilo nailed a three-ball. But Visconti answered with a four-point play for a 54-60 lead. Mega kept coming and Vulikic’s three-point play made it 59-60 and Music gave Mega the lead 61-60. The lead changed hands three times and the game was even at 66-66 after 30 minutes. Cabrilo’s three opened the fourth quarter and Milicevic and Janketic scored before a Music three-ball for a 78-72 margin. Venice worked hard to get it close and Bolpin’s three cut the deficit to 82-81 with three minutes to play. But Venice came up empty-handed on three straight possessions and Vulikic’s two free throws with 26 seconds had Mega up 86-81. And Vulikic made two more free throws with one second to play to ice the game.