Cuban forward Karel Guzmán was crowned this Sunday in the Romanian National Basketball League together with his team U Banca Transilvania Cluj Napoca, which beat Oradea in the final series of the best of five games.
In 19 minutes on the court, the habanero scored four points, captured two rebounds and made a couple of assists in the 86-67 win with which his cast reissued the local league title, the website reported Jit.
The series for the Romanian crown was tied at two victories, after the initial successes by 73-62 and 103-80 of Napoca, led by coach Vusko Dujosevich, and the Oradea riposta that tied the dispute with scores of 75-71 and 64-60.
In the decisive game for the throne of the Romanian local league, the greatest offensive weight for the winners was played by the Lithuanian Donatas Tarolis, with 24 goals, the Bosnian Andrija Stipanovich (13), the American Patrick Richards (12) and the Canadian Justin Edwards (11).
Although he performed below his averages recorded the rest of the season, Guzmán contributed to the victory of the Transylvanian club, allowing him to aspire to a position in the upcoming edition of the Basketball Champions League of Europe.
In the series against Oradea, the Cuban could only score 28 points, but during the 32 games prior to the final he accumulated 333, at a rate of 10.4 an average score in each start, according to the official statistics of the contest cited by Jit.
Cuba finalizes details for pre-qualifying for Americup 2022
The next commitment of the habanero will be wearing the uniform of the national basketball team, which will play a continental pre-qualifying tournament in El Salvador at the beginning of next July, to try to be included in the group of 16 countries that will compete in the Americup 2022, scheduled for November.
Together with Jasiel Rivero, champion of the European Champions League with Hereda San Pablo Burgos, and Javier Justiz, the other Cuban hired in the Endesa League of Spain, Guzmán will be an important piece in the aspirations of DT José Ramírez in the fight for the first positions in his group, also made up of the Bahamas, Costa Rica and the representatives of the host country.
