NIKOLA Vucevic was glad to see Montenegro get off to a strong start, scoring its first-ever Fiba Basketball World Cup group stage win at the expense of Mexico at the Mall of Asia Arena on Friday.
The Chicago Bulls center had a game-high 27 points, including eight of Montenegro's first nine markers.
READ: Vucevic throws weight around as Montenegro routs Mexico
“It’s always good to start with a win. It helps with the confidence (because) the first games, a lot of times are the most important ones especially with the way our schedule is, playing Mexico and Egypt," Vucevic said.

"It’s much easier obviously, moving forward, mentally to prepare when you (have) a win already instead of a loss,” he added.
Before achieving a historic feat for his home country, the Montenegrin ace led a 102-87 rout of Gilas Pilipinas in a closed-door tuneup match in the final week of World Cup preparations for both sides.
“Our last [tuneup] game against the Philippines helped us in preparing. But I just thought we had a really good month of practices and a lot of games and everything. That got us to this point and we are able to come here ready and play a very good first game,” he added.
Montenegro looks to replicate its winning start versus Egypt (Group D), while the Philippines eyes redemption against Angola (Group A) on Sunday.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph