Crvena Zvezda pulled off a dramatic late comeback to win in overtime on the road against Monaco 100-96 in Round 23 the EuroLeague.
Monaco entered this game with six consecutive victories and as the team with the best form in the EuroLeague, rattling off eight wins in their last ten games. Meanwhile, Crvena Zvezda came into this double week in the EuroLeague in high spirits after a dramatic comeback win against Milano, with two former Monaco members on their team in center Donatas Motiejunas and head coach Sasa Obradovic. For Monaco, Cory Joseph and Yoann Makoundou were out, while Crvena Zvezda was without the already missing quarter of Isaiah Canaan, Uros Plavsic, Tyson Carter and Jasiel Rivero.
Motiejunas was motivated early on to play well against his former team, scoring eight points in the first period as Crvena Zvezda took a 17-8 lead early. Alpha Diallo‘s amazing shooting put Monaco back in the lead, only for Ebuka Izundu to do great work on both ends of the floor to give his side a 27-21 lead at the end of the first.
Obradovic’s side had an incredible precision in their passing game with 19 assists in the first half, and the tandem of Izundu and Semi Ojeleye shut down Monaco in the paint. Ojeleye contributed with three threes on the other end along with the whole team getting many easy transition baskets and the Serbian side took a 47-29 lead at one point. Vasillis Spanoulis got his team reorganized on defense and the three pointers finally started falling as they rallied late to make it 50-44 through the tandem of Jared Blossomgame and Mike James.
Showtime Zvezda 🆙@kkcrvenazvezda #RivalrySeries I #MotorolaMagicMoment pic.twitter.com/T7DJtP2Xmt
— EuroLeague (@EuroLeague) January 20, 2026
Claim Now A string of offensive fouls put the Serbian side in a compromising position with Izundu being the only one to do harm to Monaco during the third period, while Diallo and Blossomgame did serious damage on the low post to torpedo Monaco back in the lead. Ojeleye and Elie Okobo traded threes to make it 71-68 Monaco at the end of the third. Matthew Strazel scored eight points in a row to make it 82-76 and after a hectic possession with two minutes to go, Diallo hit a seemingly back breaking three to put the score up to 90-83. And then, the drama really started.
Izundu and Jared Butler lowered the lead to 90-88 while several good blitzes from the Serbian side confused Monaco who took several ill-advised threes, and then Diallo had an inexplicable five-second violation on the inbound with 30 seconds to go. That gave the ball back to Butler who demonstrated his class again hitting an impossibly difficult left handed floater to tie the score with 11 seconds remaining. James forced up another long three that went short, which took the game into overtime.
And we're going to OT in 🇲🇨#RivalrySeries @ASMonaco_Basket vs @kkcrvenazvezda pic.twitter.com/RiAaKnI2wj
— EuroLeague (@EuroLeague) January 20, 2026
Usually the team that forces overtime has the psychological advantage and that was the case here as Jordan Nwora came alive to hit two big threes late while Monaco’s offense went ice cold from the field during the entire overtime period. Nikola Kalinic made a fast break layup to put the game to rest and give Crvena Zvezda their fourth straight win over Monaco in the EuroLeague.
Ebuka Izundu had his best game in a Crvena Zvezda uniform with 22 points and 12 rebounds, Jordan Nwora added 18 points and six rebounds, while Semi Ojeleye also had 16. For Monaco, Alpha Diallo had 19 points and Mike James had 14 points and seven assists, but shot only 3-16 from the field. Crvena Zvezda will travel to Italy to face Virtus in the second game of this EuroLeague double week on January 23rd while Monaco will go to Spain to take on Real Madrid a day earlier.
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INTERVIEWS:
- Jaka Lakovic: Zeljko Obradovic simply puts you into a mode where you constantly think about basketball
- Zlatko Jovanovic: I stand behind my decision, Honved is living its dream and continues to dream!
- Sani Becirovic: Zenit is thinking seriously, and in the next year or two we are aiming for the highest level
- Levi Randolph: I know what the EuroLeague is, and I hope to play at that level again wearing the Zenit jersey
- Zac Seljaas: I’m a unique person, family means everything to me
- Aleksa Avramovic: Defense wins championships – for sure!
- Nenad Dimitrijevic: It’s sad for the EuroLeague and Partizan that Zeljko Obradovic left
- Ilona Korstin: We are in contact with both the EuroLeague and the NBA, we are present in all meetings
- Bogdan Tanjevic: The main difference between Partizan and Crvena Zvezda – domestic players still lead the way
- Nicolo Melli: We had no-phone rules with Zeljko Obradovic; There was interest from Partizan
- Bo McCalebb: How can you not respect Zeljko Obradovic? My only regret is that I didn’t listen to him enough
