Partizan 80-89 Barça: Tough test passed in Belgrade

A professional performance saw Barça overcome Partizan 80-89 in Belgrade as the team continues to show improvement towards the business end of the season.

Laprovittola shines in Belgrade

The usual raucous atmosphere in Belgrade saw Nico Laprovittola step up to lead the initial attacks and score two three-pointers to dampen the home spirits. The first quarter was nip and tuck, but the Catalans managed to edge ahead to start the second with a four point lead (21-25).

Partizan came out flying with former Barça man Dante Exum leading the charge, scoring eight unanswered points in a row to take the Serbians into the lead and drive the fans wild. Saras Jasikevicius called a time out with the score 32-27, Tobey responded with a three-pointer, but Partizan kept up the pace. Another time out with the score 40-32 saw Laprovittola again return to dominate proceedings, scoring 14 points by the break and leaving the game finely poised (45-44).

Second half seals the win

The third quarter began like the first, a 0-7 for Barça causing Obradovic to call a time out, but the lead just stretched further afterwards (49-61), before the quarter ended with the score 58-66).

The last 10 minutes saw a controlled performance from Barça to seal the win. Partizan battled hard, even coming within three but back came Laprovittola with another three points to silence the Belgrade crowd (70-76). Satoransky added another and the Catalans cruised to the buzzer for a sixth straight win, final score 80-89.

Game stats

Partizan: 80
Barça: 89

Partizan: Madar (6), Punter (16), Nunnally (5), Leday (10), Lessort (5) - starting five - Avramovic (6), Smailagic (6), Papapetrou (2), Exum (24) and Trifunovic (0).
Barça: Satoransky (10), Laprovittola (25), Abrines (5). Mirotic (19), Vesely (14) - starting five - Da Silva (0), Sanli (2), Kalinic (4), Higgins (5), Tobey (5) and Jokubaitis (2).

Quarters: 21-25, 24-19, 13-22, 22-23.

Referees: Borys Ryzhyk, Anne Panther and Seffi Shemmesh.