Barça seal the ‘court factor’ at the Palau
Sarunas Jasikevicius’ men beat ALBA Berlin to secure the ‘Top 4’ and be seeded in the ‘Playoffs’
MADRID, 30 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Barça successfully paid for ALBA Berlin’s visit to the Palau Blaugrana this Thursday, on matchday 32 of the Euroleague Regular Phase, after a hard-fought victory (72-56) with which they sealed their classification in the ‘Top 4’, which allows him to be seeded in the ‘Playoffs’ of the competition, with two days to go before this regular phase ends.
The team led by Sarunas Jasikevicius, who had just beaten Partizan in Belgrade (80-89) in the first match of the doubleheader this week, continued their good form, after seven consecutive victories in all competitions, against a team German who resisted more than necessary and who succumbed after an overwhelming last quarter of the blaugrana.
Thus, the local impetus to decant from the beginning an important victory for their goals, unleashed a high scoring rate with great success from the blaugrana in the early stages. However, their lack of defensive solidity, added to their lack of concentration in transitions, allowed a Teutonic team to get back into the game that ended up coming back from behind in the first quarter (19-21).
Although Barça threatened to react at the beginning of the second, the Germans’ three-point success (5/7) continued to do a lot of damage to a culé defense that did not protect itself on defensive rebounds either. The appearance of Mirotic and Laprovittola reduced the gap halfway through the fourth, but their great offensive presence was not enough to take a second ten minutes that Delow opted for just before the break (34-35).
After the restart, the scoring rate dropped to measure the effectiveness of two defensemen who closed ranks on the rebound to try to tie up a third quarter that was even at halfway point (39-39). The irruption of a very successful Kuric returned the advantage to a culé team, which after recovering its effectiveness from the line of three ended up taking the penultimate set (50-42).
With everything to be decided, Barça took advantage of its positive inertia to put the maximum on the scoreboard (60-45) at the beginning of the last ten minutes that no longer escaped the local team. Sanli took advantage of the doubts of the Germans to prevail in the paint and begin to subdue an ALBA unable to keep up. Israel González’s men, with nothing at stake, had to lower their arms at the end of the game that Barça took advantage of to open up the distance and settle the bulk of the result.
DATASHEET.
–RESULT: BARÇA, 72 – ALBA BERLIN, 56. (34-35, at halftime).
–EQUIPMENT.
BARÇA: Satoransky (6), Laprovittola (7), Kuric (7), Mirotic (11) and Vesely (6) –starting five–; Da Silva (2), Abrines (5), Kalinic (10), Higgins (4), Tobey (-), Sanli (12) and Jokubaitis (2).
DAWN BERLIN: Lo (6), Smith (5), Olinde (7), Sikma (4) and Koumadje (2) –starting quintet–; Wetzell (9), Procida (-), Delow (5), Lammers (7), Thiemann (2), Blatt (-) and Zoosman (83).
–PARTIALS: 19-21, 15-14, 16-7, 22-14.
–REFEREES: Radovic, Bissang and Tsaroucha. No deleted.
–HALL: Palau Blaugrana.
