Carlos Mateos Gil
Madrid, Dec 14 (EFE).- Real Madrid, without some of its most important players, achieved a peaceful victory at the Movistar Arena against Bàsquet Girona (112-76) in a match that tilted in its favor in the third quarter and in which all its players scored, nine of them, in addition, with double-digit ratings.
Sergio Scariolo fulfilled his idea of rotating in the league, but this time he went big, leaving Walter Tavares, Mario Hezonja and Gabriel Deck in the stands. Without three of their main pillars, the objective was to open the gap as soon as possible and, from there, set the tempo of the confrontation.
Along these lines, the white team opted for triples quite successfully. His first nine points came from a distance, with a successful outside shot from Canadian Trey Lyles and two more from the young Italian Gabriele Procida, who has plenty of nerve to take advantage of opportunities when they are given to him.
The white team’s lead rose to nine points, at which point some good minutes from Nikola Maric brought the visitors closer, taking advantage of the rival’s changes.
That upward trend for Girona continued until the start of the second quarter, when a 7-13 run that included two consecutive triples by Derek Needham (6 of 8 in total for the team in the ten minutes until the intermission) forced a tie (35-35, m.14).
Real Madrid responded forcefully, with a 10-3 score unleashed by Chuma Okeke, who did half of the scoring work. It was the appetizer of two distant successes without reply from Facundo Campazzo and Alberto Abalde that allowed their team to jump over the psychological barrier of ten points and, in the end, go into halftime winning 59-49 thanks also in large part to dominance on the rebound.
What seemed well on track for the host ended up coming to fruition in the opening five minutes of the third quarter. With shooting problems for the Girona side (5 of 18 in field goals until half an hour), those in white were opening the gap until they reached double ten points of advantage heading into the decisive quarter (86-65, m.30).
The remaining ten minutes were inconsequential for a local team that had already reached a hundred points with four minutes remaining and thus added its eighth consecutive victory in all competitions, number 36 in a row on its home field in the league.
– Technical sheet:
112 – Real Madrid (28+31+27+26): Campazzo (10), Feliz (9), Procida (15), Lyles (16), Len (7), -starting five-, Maledon (10), Llull (4), Krämer (13), Okeke (6), Garuba (7), Abalde (3), Almansa (12).
76 – Bàsquet Girona (22+27+16+11): Livingston (10), Needham (10), Sergi Martínez (9), Geben (8), Juan Fernández (4) -inicial cinco-, Busquets (9), Maric (12), Susinskas (-), Hollanders (-), Hughes (9), Vildoza (3), Ferrando (2).
Referees: Carlos Peruga, Alberto Baena and Fabio Fernández. No eliminated.
Incidents: Matchday 10 of the Endesa League played at the Movistar Arena in Madrid in front of 6,807 spectators. In the run-up, French point guard Theo Maledon received the November MVP award in the competition from Rudy Fernández.
EFE
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