UEMC Valladolid: New Coach & Leadership Boost

UEMC Baloncesto Valladolid begins the year with firm steps, finally presenting its candidacy for promotion. Because their duel against the until then sole leader ISB Azpeitia was more than a mere confirmation that there is a squad to bid to recover the stripes lost last season. It was a pure exercise in resilience in a game that had almost all the desired ingredients (the 24-second clock was missing). Good basketball at times, comeback and total communion with a crowd that is beginning to regain a little taste for basketball even if it is third category.

UEMC Baloncesto Valladolid knew how to suffer in a match of maximum demand and great tension, perhaps caused by that spoiled scoreboard or by some lost referees who were overwhelmed from the beginning.

But the step forward through Pisuerga of the Three Wise Men who were on their way to leaving coal when the ISB Azpeitia awakened that ferocious wolf inside in its outdoor battery, going from fairground shotguns to repeating and precision rifles, placing the score at a threatening 68-78 with just over five minutes remaining. It was of little or rather nothing worth it that Barrio’s team was in charge throughout the game. His light went out coinciding with Azpeitia’s bugle call from his outsides with four consecutive triples. Because? In good part because of not closing the rebound and also because of a bench rotation that disconnected more than connected more than one player on the team, who did not know if he was coming or leaving the bench.

On tiptoe and without making a sound, Azpeitia took command, first punishing UEMC in its inside game due to its poor aim and then, when he recovered it, from the 6.75 meter line with Aizpitarte, a hindrance until then, at the controls. Based on faith and from the free throw line, the purple team got into the game to play the trick, finally as in the past, with the public putting pressure on. Pisuerga was Pisuerga carrying the team as he once did.

The UEMC regained control of the match in a truly heart-stopping finale so that the Three Wise Men exchanged their gift, coal, for the best possible gift, victory and leadership. Yes, the leadership. And in the moment of greatest tension, without a visible scoreboard, he knew how to calm his nerves by holding on, defending and stealing the ball to give the finishing touch and the sentence to his fierce rival from the free throw line (87-84).