Unicaja Banco Oviedo’s victory suffered

Customs can be harmful to health. For the nerves of the fans, for example, who opened the season with two overtime periods and yesterday saw how Unicaja Banco Oviedo had to sweat India ink to pull off their first home game against the recently promoted Juaristi ISB. In the end, thanks to the reaction in the third quarter and the greater success against a more inexperienced team, the OCB achieved the second victory. 79-73.

2-0 in the balance that gives tranquility to face, next Sunday, another complicated visit to the CB Prat field. On the other hand, the injury of the pivot Hervé Kabasele in his right knee, produced in the penultimate action of the game worries the technicians pending his evolution.

From the beginning to the end the game was a carbon copy of the development of Alicante. The OCB entered cold, failed, leaving the Gipuzkoans to grow thanks to the success of their two young talents: Pavel Savkov and Sidy Cissoko.

With 9-16 and four minutes to go, Lezkano took a turn. Time out, adjust in defense and try to add in each attack. Irregular, the Unicaja Banco Oviedo added actions of merit such as a mate de clara from Marc Martí with disconnections when the external success of Juaristi had to be stopped.

In the second quarter, the most meritorious on the part of the locals was the arreón of Mathieu Kamba. The forward added seven consecutive points thanks to a penetration, a triple and a jump shot to leave the score at 27-34. It was not worth, however, to stop the spirited Basque team.

In the resumption another OCB was seen. Again, as against HLA Alicante, it took him more than half a game to reestablish the tie. A 7-2 run to start the second quarter attested to this. 43-43. New game, better defense and run. A mate from Kostecka came to the counterattack to lift the public of Pumarín from their seats and place the first advantage also for the locals who, four up, were going to miss the opportunities to consolidate the advantages.

Oliver Arteaga, Kabasele and Kamba got into foul trouble already in the final quarter. A technique on the bench put Juaristi back into the game and everything was going to be decided by details.

And as four days ago, Frey appeared helped by Bartolomé who added a triple and two free throws to score five points in one stroke. But you had to keep rowing. From 60-55 it went to 66-69 and some feared the worst.

The Norwegian guard, however, knew how to perfectly read Juaristi’s defensive weaknesses in blocking and continuation. He scored four points in a row and found his teammates. It only remained to endorse the defense work. Kabasele, before hurting himself, put a consolidated stratospheric plug with a triple by Kamba from the corner. Pumarín breathed.

Tribute to Víctor Pérez

At halftime, Unicaja Banco Oviedo paid tribute to four historical figures of the club: Agustín Prieto, Héctor and Adrián Macías and Víctor Pérez, who was thus able to say goodbye to the Pumarín fans that today have filled the stands with 1,000 spectators.