Destiny Palencia dreams again

That there was a desire for basketball among the Palencia public is undeniable. And that this is the sixth player for the purples is also true. The local fans accompanied Destino Palencia yesterday in the first meeting with the public at the Municipal Pavilion since last February. A meeting in which the schoolboys returned to the path of victory (87-69) – the fifth of the season – in a great game, where the triples appeared everywhere and the good game, absent during the previous appointments, returned to put in an appearance.

The Palencia players could not come out better on the field and, during the first four minutes, the set was favorable with a 9-0. It seemed that the rest days felt good on the squad and, again, the sensations that were experienced during the preseason were appreciated again. Those of Arturo Álvarez delighted, enjoyed and did enjoy. Without a doubt, the clouds, the shadows and any trace of doubt were gone from this team that, again, is capable of everything.

The Argentines Nico Richotti and Lucho Massarelli, as well as Dani Rodríguez, set themselves apart during the first quarter with a triple for each and a very good offensive game. But not only in the offensive game were the Palencia players brilliant, also in defense. Arturo Álvarez’s pupils had eleven defensive rebounds and a maximum advantage at the end of the first quarter of fifteen points (21-6). On the contrary, in the Galicians the numbers were quite poor with 27% of annotations in the shots from the paint and with only eight rebounds (5 defensive and 3 offensive).

The purple improvement would continue during the second quarter. At least for the first two minutes, but everything stopped in that instant, and for ten minutes, due to technical problems at the statistics table. The break brought the local players like a jug of cold water, who lost three balls once the game was resumed, but soon made up for it thanks to the triples. And it is that again Massarelli managed to score three times by inflating the scoreboard. The people of Palencia gave off joy and good basketball. And right. The one who disappeared the past days, when things were uglier, had returned. Jabari Narcis joined the triple festival and increased even more – if possible – the points over the Galicians.

The game went to rest with a triple on the horn of Jabari Narcis, who led the purples to the maximum difference over Ourense (+17) and put the score with a 39-22 in favor, which unleashed the fervor of the Palencia public gathered for the occasion.

There were no birds in the locker room or anything like that. The college team jumped onto the court with the same intensity as minutes before and with the same desire to delight their people with good basketball. Preston Purifoy opened the scoring in the second half for the purples, who once again increased their advantage Those of Gonzalo García de Vitoria tried to readjust their defense, trying to stop the rival’s success, but yesterday there was nothing to stop the purples.

Destino Palencia allowed itself the luxury of doing even acrobatics on the court like an ‘alley oop’ by Purifoy, which served to delight an audience that did not stop cheering throughout the game. The Argentine Nico Richotti was once again the one he was and converted into three points every ball he threw from outside the perimeter.

Preston Purifoy continued to contribute his quality and put the Galicians’ advance in trouble with a spectacular stopper, which returned possession to his own. Precisely Purifoy scored a triple to end the third quarter and left the electronic at 66-39.

There was not much variation in the last ten minutes of the game. It seemed as if the purples did not want the clash to end. All the plays that had not gone well during the season began to work, the Palencians took the 87-69 victory against the Galicians. Again, and after many months, the Pavilion resounded again, “Let’s go my Palencia, let’s go champion” in the throats of the 400 people from Palencia who returned to cheer on their team as if it were the sixth player.