Dubai takes the lead against Partizan at the start of the ABA League final series

Partizan basketball players began their title defense in the ABA League playoff finals with a defeat tonight, as they lost to Dubai 93:99 (24:29, 20:24, 22:16, 27:30) on the away court, in the first game of the series.

For Partizan, Karlik Jones scored 21 points, with five rebounds and four assists, Sterling Brown had 20 points and four rebounds, and Dwayne Washington had 18 points. Isaac Bonga added 13 points and four rebounds, and Bruno Fernando had seven points and five rebounds.

Dubai was led by Janan Musa with 22 points and six assists, McKinley Wright with 19 points and nine assists, Mfionda Kabengele with 19 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals and Justin Anderson with 11 points.

A minute of silence was held before the start of the match in honor of sports journalist Edin Avdić, who died suddenly on Wednesday at the age of 47.

Partizan initially led 7:2, and Dubai, led by Wright, made up for the deficit and led 18:14.

Kabengele also scored alongside him, and after Bruno Kaboklo's point, the home team led 22:16.

Partizan got going with Washington's three-pointer, which made it 23:24. Klemen Prepelič immediately converted the three-pointer, and then Kenan Kamenjaš scored for a five-point difference at the end of the first quarter.

The home team continued to maintain their lead, which grew to six points after Aleksa Avramović's three-pointer, 32:26. Partizan had problems with rebounding, and Jones and Washington scored for the team.

After Musa's throw, Dubai had an eight-point lead, Jones and Washington hit three-pointers on the other side, but Anderson returned the three-pointer, and after Dwayne Bacon's basket, the home team had a double-digit lead, 49:39.

Partizan managed to close the gap with four consecutive points from Brown, but Wright made it nine points clear at the end of the first half.

After points from Fernando, Jones and Bonga, Partizan reduced the lead to six points (51:57), but Dubai stepped up after that, taking advantage of the opponent's mistakes, with Davis Bertans, Wright, Kabengele and Anderson scoring for an 18-point lead, 69:51.

Partizan responded with a 15:0 run and, led by Tony Dzekiri, Nick Calathes and Washington, came within three points of a deficit, 66:69, at the end of the third quarter.

Dubai started the last quarter with 10 consecutive points and came back to a 13-point lead 79:66, and Fernando scored the first points for Partizan in the fourth minute.

The home team maintained their lead, which Partizan managed to reduce to five points in the final minutes (90:95), and took the lead in the series.

The series is played to three wins, the second game is scheduled for Saturday at 18 pm again in Dubai, and the third match will be played on Wednesday at 19 pm in Belgrade.