Santiago de Compostela, Apr 8 (EFE).- UCAM Murcia continues without winning at home in the second round of the Endesa league after falling on the court of Monbus Obradoiro (81-79), in a heart-stopping duel that was decided in the last attack, when an excellent defense from the Galician team drowned out the university attack.
UCAM Murcia showed two very different faces in each part. The first half was very poor. Failed to shoot, with a sad 2/13 in triples at halftime, weak in the paint, which the Lithuanian Marek Blazevic knew how to exploit, and with Travis Trice holding his team in the game with half (6) of the points of his team (13) in the second quarter.
And that the university team struck from the start with a 0-9 partial after Leo Westermann’s initial triple. It was a mirage. His disastrous percentage from the three-point line (14 percent accuracy) gave life to an Obradoiro who rowed until taking command of the duel with two consecutive three-pointers, the first by Argentine Fer Zurbriggen and the second by Thomas Scrubb after a long career in the last second of the quarter (20-15).
The traffic jam for Sito Alonso’s team continued until Obradoiro entered a bonus. His offensive output came down to a Ryan Luther 3-pointer in five minutes. Not even the Madrid coach’s timeout oxygenated a disastrous Murcia in attack. His rival, despite the fact that her numbers in attack were not brilliant either, dominated comfortably (39-28, rest).
Going through the locker room was good for the visiting team. In less than four minutes he had twelve points, almost as many as he had in the second quarter. And he also raised his defensive intensity. That was enough for him to get closer in the electronic (46-40), despite charging very quickly with fouls.
Trice and Lhuter led the varsity attack, and the Obradoiro fell apart. He multiplied his errors in attack and gave too many facilities in defense. His advantage vanished (55-56, min.28) despite the fact that Moncho Fernández called two time-outs in just one minute. The memory of what happened in the derby against Breogán was very present.
The team from Santiago conceded as many points in the third quarter (28) as in the first two, and at the start of the last quarter they committed several defensive mismatches that oxygenated UCAM Murcia, who dominated the rebound (58-61, min.32). Robertson returned to the track. The exchange of blows remained equal until the last two minutes, when Obradoiro took a three-point lead (75-72).
Sito Alonso stopped the game, with his team stuck despite punishing the Galician defense with his offensive rebounds. And as soon as the ball was put into play, Trice forced a 2+1 to equalize the clash, in addition to Blazevic’s fifth foul. One minute left. Westermann scored for the Obra, and Anderson missed his second free throw before Robertson gave his team a three-point lead (79-96) with 40 seconds left.
UCAM Murcia was touched, but McFadden displayed his wrist with a long triple. Tables again. Obradoiro looked for a long attack, but a mismatch in defense was exploited by Rubén Guerrero. 81-79. Dead time for Sito Alonso. 8 seconds left. Murcia looked for McFadden, who had a hot wrist, but a spectacular obradoirista defense prevented him from getting up.
Datasheet:
81 Monbus Obradoiro (20+19+19+23): Westermann (13), Thomas Scrubb (14), Robertson (15), Alex Suarez (5) and Guerrero (9) – starting team – Philip Scrubb (5), Zurbriggen (3), Walker, Blazevic (14) and Magnay (3).
79 UCAM Murcia (15+13+28+23): Trice (17), Rojas (3), Jelinek (7), Radovic (7) and Sakho (7) , Luther (9), McFadden (11), Anderson (6), Diop and Andronicashvili (2).
Referees: Pérez Pizarro, Alfonso Olivares and Héctor Baez.
Incidents: Match corresponding to the twenty-sixth day of the Endesa League played at the Multiusos Fontes do Sar in front of 4,730 spectators.
