"Get him off the court"?

You could follow the live coverage of the Partizan vs. ASVEL match on the Sportal website.

In the first half of the season, Partizan's loss to ASVEL in Villeurbanne proved to be merely a prelude to the disaster against Panathinaikos and the cascade of negative events that followed that Athens debacle. While tonight's game between Partizan and ASVEL in the Belgrade Arena cannot be compared to the previous encounter in any sense – the first took place early in the season when all possibilities were still open, whereas now both teams are essentially playing exhibition EuroLeague matches – the reigning Serbian and Adriatic champion managed to get revenge on Pierre Pupe's team, securing their fourth consecutive victory in the elite competition with a score of 79-78.

Partizan thus capitalized on a golden opportunity – some might even call it a sitter – against the bottom-ranked team to take another significant step towards the middle of the table and salvage some pride in what has been a largely tarnished season. Despite a dreadful start to the game and a catastrophic first quarter – arguably their worst of the season, and the competition for that title is stiff – Partizan regrouped in time, mitigating the damage before halftime.

One of the (unsung) heroes of Partizan's victory was the team's interim captain – Aleksej Pokuševski.

And despite a terrible first half – much like the entire team – Pokuševski rallied in the second, hitting two crucial three-pointers in the third quarter when ASVEL was once again on a formidable run, practically single-handedly keeping Partizan's head above water.

Aleksej put aside Joan Peñarroya's frustration and benching him in the first quarter due to defensive errors, he also brushed off a few short shots at the start of the third quarter. Ignoring comments like "get him off the court" that occasionally echoed from the stands, he stepped up as captain when Partizan needed one the most.

Although he finished the game with just six points, those two crucial three-pointers, Pokuševski provided Partizan with the vital spark that kept them in contention, ultimately leading to a nail-biting finish – powered by Carlik Jones and Dilan Osetkovski – which Partizan narrowly survived with a good deal of luck.

VIDEO Horrific scene in the Arena: Jekiri suffers an unfortunate injury during the match against ASVEL, forced to leave the court immediately!