Madrid (EFE).- Real Madrid completed another perfect week and extended its good run in the Endesa League, where it remains the leader after having won eleven of its last twelve games, with a valuable and hard-fought victory against Lenovo Tenerife (88-77 ) who stood up to the end despite having reserved Marcelinho Huertas and Giorgi Shermadini, his most decisive men.
Despite Sasu Salin’s initial three-pointer, which gave the islanders the only advantage all afternoon, the local team took to the court more focused, quickly taking the lead from Dzanan Musa and Walter Tavares and forcing Txus Vidorreta to a fivefold change in search of better results. A block from the Cape Verdean center followed by a three-pointer from Petr Cornelie raised the score to 18-6 and forced the Basque coach to request his first time-out after five and a half minutes of white superiority.
Jaime Fernández, with six quick points and his usual speed, put some order into the game of the Canarian team that, with a slight improvement, was able to at least reduce the difference at the end of the first ten minutes of clear Madrid color (28-20). .
The exchange of losses and errors marked the start of the second quarter. Vidorreta kept reserving Huertas and Shermadini and, although his team tried with points from Tim Abromaitis and Elgin Cook, Real Madrid were more forceful in attack, with all their players contributing to the team.
The game continued in the same vein until the break, only altered by several controversial arbitration decisions that were highly protested by the public. Chus Mateo’s team was able to overcome the commotion and reach the break with the game apparently on track (50-36).
Jaime Fernández and Musa continued to lead their team after the restart. The exchange of three-pointers from both sides prevented Lenovo Tenerife from getting closer, until Salin managed with his third outside hit to lower the gap to ten points many minutes later (63-54, min 26).
However, the greater depth of Real Madrid’s bench allowed him to distribute the minutes among his players and the success of Mario Hezonja, his most inspired man in the third act and who continued in the good line shown in Monaco, allowed him to reach the last ten minutes with eleven rental points (70-59, min 30).
The Canaries got to eight on a couple of occasions at the start of the final quarter, which Chus Mateo did not like, who stopped the game six minutes from the end to reorganize his team and avoid surprises in the decisive stretch of the clash.
Vincent Poirier, with ten points in the last ten minutes, provided calm in the hot moments, although the game continued to gain in excitement because the people of Tenerife did not give up. Moussa Diagne set off the alarm by lowering the white mattress to five points with 2.40 to play (81-75), although the forces of the visitors reached that far Five consecutive points from a great Hezonja sealed Real Madrid’s sixteenth league win.
– Datasheet:
88 – Real Madrid (28+22+20+18): Williams-Goss (8), Hezonja (14), Musa (15), Cornelie (7) and Tavares (4) – the starting quintet – Yabusele (8), Poirier (15), Sergio Rodriguez (7), Causeur (6), Ndiaye (-) and Hanga (4).
77 – Lenovo Tenerife (20+16+23+18). Sergio Rodriguez (3), Fitipaldo (1), Salin (9), Abromaitis (7) and Guerra (2) -starting five-, Sastre (3), Doornekamp (16), Fernández (12), Diagne (8) and Cook (16).
Referees: Emilio Pérez Pizarro, Javier Torres and Joaquín García. Mario Hezonja was eliminated due to fouls.
Incidents: Matchday 19 of the Endesa League played at the WiZink Center in Madrid in front of 8,059 spectators. EFE
