U18 SSB battles to beat U18 Avezda for second victory

Game Report      22 May 2026      3 Mins rea

Qualifier               Round 2 of 3

U18 Next Gen Team 3SSB finished strong to prevail in a tight battle over U18 Crvena Zvezda, 97-84, claiming its second victory of the adidas NextGen EuroLeague Finals. The American team improves to 2-0 and now likely faces a do-or-die matchup with U18 FC Barcelona tomorrow for the right to advance to the title game, whereas Zvezda is eliminated at 0-2.

Nasir Anderson came close to a triple-double for 3SSB with 18 points, 13 assists and 9 rebounds. Jalen Davis poured in 20 points, Blaze Johnson scored 14 and Josiah Rose had 11. Aleksej Nedeljkovic led all scorers with 30 points, while Ognjen Simjanovski netted 18 points and Egor Ryabov added 11. But Zvezda paid the price for a bad day from the foul line, missing 14 free throws, and struggled to compete off the backboards as 3SSB won the rebounding battle 54-40.

Nedeljkovic struck a couple of three-pointers and Simjanovski raced to double-digit scoring, as a 0-12 run pushed Zvezda ahead by the end of the first frame, 20-27. 3SSB stiffened its defensive resolve as RJ Evans netted 8 fast points to tie it, 35-35, but Zvezda raced back in front, 45-50, by halftime. The American team came out strong after the break, but Nedeljkovic kept leading Zvezda with 10 points in the third quarter for a 67-71 lead. Anderson pushed 3SSB into its first lead, scoring 6 points in a 14-2 run, and Zvezda couldn’t fight back as the Americans won the fourth quarter 30-13.