Red Star Beats Aris 91-87 Before Zalgiris Opener
Red Star's basketball players celebrated at Aleksandar Nikolic Hall against Aris, avenging their loss in Cyprus, ahead of Thursday's EuroLeague opener against Zalgiris.
Tyson Carter drove into the lane, split two Aris defenders and scored from under the basket to send a clear message: this game belonged to Red Star. Moments earlier, Chima Moneke had drained a three to put the home side back in front, and Carter’s basket only sealed the possession. Jordan Nwora kept adding points until the final buzzer confirmed what the scoreboard at Aleksandar Nikolic Hall already showed: 91-87 for the hosts.
It was Red Star’s last preseason game before the start of the EuroLeague, and it came against the very team that had spoiled their mood just days earlier. The game swung back and forth by quarter, 23-21, 18-23, 26-19 and finally 24-24 in the last period, keeping the margin tight all the way to the final possession. At halftime it was actually Aris in front, 44-41, after Red Star struggled at the free throw line and let an earlier eight point lead slip away.
Five Days or a Week After the Loss in Cyprus
With this win, Ibon Navarro’s team settled the score with Aris, which had beaten them earlier at a tournament in Cyprus. Even the sources don’t fully agree on when that happened: Danas reports the loss came last week, while Arena Sport and Nova.rs place the same matchup just five days earlier. Tanjug reported the score in that game as 98-74 for the Greek side, a number that explains why Wednesday night’s win mattered to Red Star, preseason game or not.
Red Star opened the third quarter with a 7-0 run, led by Stefan Miljenovic and continued by Moneke with two straight threes. Aris, however, refused to fold. Vasilis Spanoulis’ team closed to within a single possession in the final quarter thanks to Canadian Greek forward Mitrou-Long, keeping the finish in doubt until the last possessions.
Jordan Nwora was the game’s top scorer with 25 points, followed by Chima Moneke with 15 and Tyson Carter with 10. Nenad Dimitrijevic led the visitors with 16 points, while Aris put five players in double figures. That statistic shows just how even the game really was, despite a final score that looks more one sided than the game actually played out.
Navarro Demanded Better Communication
Red Star’s coach repeatedly raised his voice from the bench during the game, demanding better defensive communication from his players, especially in moments when Aris found easy points off poorly covered off ball defenders. At the press conference afterward, Navarro made no secret of the fact that the real work is just beginning.
If you ask 20 coaches in the EuroLeague whether they’re ready, they’ll all tell you no.
The sentence sums up where Red Star stands heading into the season: a team that wins, but knows its game still isn’t where it needs to be once the points that count start being tallied.
Red Star’s line up for the win: Motley, Jones, Miljenovic, Wiley-Babb, Butler, Carter, Izundu, Baldwin, Medarevic, Nwora, Kramer and Moneke, the full roster Navarro had at his disposal for this test.
When Does Red Star Open the EuroLeague?
The answer is already known: Red Star hosts Zalgiris in Belgrade on Thursday, September 24, at 8 PM, in the opening round of the new EuroLeague season. After beating Milan and losing to Olympiacos and Aris at the Cyprus tournament, this win is the last signal before the real work begins, and the club had announced ahead of the season that around 10,000 season ticket holders are expected to fill the arena.
On the same day the Aris game was played, the club also announced that the training center inside Aleksandar Nikolic Hall had been named after Vladimir Cvetkovic, a former player and executive who spent part of his career as director of SC Tasmajdan. The ceremony was attended by Red Star president Zeljko Drcelic, sporting director Milos Teodosic and captain Ognjen Dobric, while Vladimir Cvetkovic’s son was absent for justified reasons.
The game against Aris won’t go down as a night to remember, but it sent a message that Red Star knows how to raise its level when it needs to. Whether that’s enough for Zalgiris on Thursday, we’ll find out after the first buzzer of the new season.
