Spar Girona was wrecked this evening at the Villeneuve track (69-57) and will have to call for an epic comeback to qualify for the Euroleague. The good feelings of the first quarter (9-15), with a solid Uni defense, ended before the break (34-27), and the worst was yet to come. It has come to fall by 23, and in the final three minutes for Esperança the difference, led by Araújo, has been reduced to 12.
Burke, a former Spar player, is now one of the figures of the French team. A fortuitous ankle sprain with 4 minutes left in the third quarter forced him to leave the game, but he did so after scoring 17 points in 21 minutes. At that time, Uni was already losing by 10 (45-35) and it looked more and more tired and confused. The half ended with a -15 (54-39).
For dessert, a 5-0 start in the fourth has shot the difference in favor of Villeneuve up to 20 points (59-39), with the team from Girona unable to cut the deficit. The match was lost and it was necessary, at least, not to leave the tie before the return match that will be played in Fontajau next Wednesday (20.15).
With less than 3 minutes to go Murphy made it 67-51 (-16), and Gardner made it 67-52 from the free throw. Araújo appeared with a triple at 1.33 (67-55), reducing the margin to -12, and then to -10 (67-57). In the end it will be necessary to recover 12 points (69-57).
