Nacional defeated Biguá 84-81 in the second final of the Uruguayan Basketball League 2021, leaving the best-of-five series agreed to 1-1.
The cast of Villa Biarritz had won the first match 97-92 on Monday, so Nacional was forced to win so that the series would not be practically sentenced.
The tricolor battled, recovered to an adverse first half and with a devastating Dominique Morrison ended up taking the victory.
The tricolor started with Manuel Romero, Pierino Rusch, Dominique Morrison, Devon Collier and Charles Mitchell. It should be remembered that in the finals he arrived with Santiago Moglia with a hand fracture, Marcel Souberbielle with a torn ligament and with Collier who had just recovered from covid-19.
Biguá’s starting five were Santiago Vidal, Iván Loriente, Donald Sims, Victor Rudd and Hatila Passos.
The party had a historical ingredient: for the first time there was a judge in the arbitration list, Vivian García, who was accompanied by Alejandro Sánchez Varela and Gastón Rodríguez.
Pena García leads the way
The match started even with Rusch as the main protagonist in Nacional with three successful triples in three attempts and Pepo Vidal leading the baton of Biguá’s game with goal and assists.
In the second quarter, Hernán Laginestra’s team played better and imposed conditions on defense, significantly improving the defensive inside game with Rudd and Hatila dominating about Mitchell and Batista, the reverse of what happened in the first final.
In addition, the Duck added new agents of imbalance in attack in that second quarter: Sims and the Argentine (of Uruguayan descent) Diego Pena Garcia.
The forward who came from Argentine basketball was the excluding figure of the first half scoring 14 points and four triples scored in five attempts.
Biguá got a maximum of six points and with a good finish, in the hands of Sims, he raised the lead to eight against a Nacional who, without the weight with which his inmates had hurt in the first game, was left in fits and starts in attack. First with Rusch, then with Morrison and at times with Mitchell.
Vidal is injured
After a good start from Biguá in the third quarter, where Rudd joined the offensive scoring, the match had a break midway through that third quarter when Vidal suffered a sprained ankle left when Collier fell on him.
Leonardo Zylbertsztein, as a daring chess player, has already moved pieces by planting a zonal defense and leading Biguá to his own downfall: the outside shot.
Although this Biguá team plays at that, triple, and with high percentages, the shelf fell from the departure of Vidal.
Without a driver, the ball went through Sims and Sims played toss and toss of three. He tried 14 triples and made only two. But the whole team continued on the same reading. In the entire second half, Biguá shot 26 triples and hit just three. Pena García finished with 17 points, he made only three in the second half.
Laginestra put Vidal limping in the last minute of the game of that third quarter in search of recomposing the line of play. He paid dearly for it. Because Morrison had already turned on.
Y With the notable game of the Rasta, Nacional passed Biguá over the top. With outside shot (he tried five triples and made four) and also penetrating to total 25 points in a magical night.
With a lazy night and closing of Esteban Batista (two points and 11 rebounds) who missed two free games and gave a ball, but with quality minutes by Carlos Cabezas that put the triple with which Nacional stretched its advantage (81-76), the tricolor went straight to the victory.
Biguá could tie it with a very good ball reversal in the final eight seconds, but Alex López missed the triple.
Various players touched
Vidal was injured and in Biguá they light candles.
Paulo Petkoff, basketuruguay.uy
Santiago Vidal ended sense
But he was not the only one who ended up making sense. Before, Martín Rojas had also sprained an ankle in an attack action where he stepped on Cabezas.
Rudd, meanwhile, also ended up limping from another sprained ankle.
In Nacional, Cabezas was very sore in his right shoulder.
Three finals in four days
The third final will be played on Friday at 18:30. The fourth will be on Saturday at time 20. If a fifth and final final is necessary, it will be played on Monday at 21:15.
I followed the statistics of the match here.
The match
First quarter: National 22-21
Second quarter: Biguá 48-40
Third quarter: Biguá 71-65
Final: National 84-81
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