Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (EFE) Success from outside by Shurna (17) and Balcerowski in the paint (16).
With this victory, the island team will face Joventut in the next round, who beat Hapoel Tel Aviv in Badalona (82-74). A new single-match tie that will be decided next week at the Gran Canaria Arena, as the Claretian team ended the regular phase with the best record of victories.
In a brilliant start -as expected due to the characteristics of the rival-, the yellows managed to contain the speed of the French team with the success of the American John Shurna, who signed the first eight points for his team in a more than even start (17- 16 at the equator of the initial period).
Wallace and Begarin imposed their athletic ability in favor of the Parisians, but the islander’s outside shot and the entry of Frenchman Damien Inglis allowed them to withstand the onslaught, scoring the ‘Granca’ in the first quarter by a tight and spectacular 32-30.
In the second round, equality continued to be the keynote. Yamagate and Evans continued to erode the yellow zone with continuous penetrations. Inglis came to the rescue, adding to Salvó’s perimeter game to give air to the Claretians (46-36) and force the visiting coach Will Weaver’s timeout at 5:39 for the break.
A triple by Bassas stretched the difference to 13 points (49-36), but from there, Paris increased the dose of muscle to hook a 0-7 run and provoke the corresponding technical stop by Jaka Lakovic (49- 43).
And it would be then when it would be the turn of the Polish guard AJ Slaughter, who in the middle of the fray signed eight almost consecutive points to lift the islanders up again and close the first part with 61-48 in the electronic.
At the restart, Gran Canaria not only managed to keep the distance above ten but also increased the scoring bleeding with Balcerowsky and Shurna as protagonists (72-54). But it would be with a basket in the paint by Inglis when the local team would reach the maximum difference (80-58) with one minute to go in the last quarter.
Faced with such a scenario, the local coach, Jaka Lakovic, increased the rotations and temporized in attack to keep his distance and play with the anxiety of the rival, who was unable to reduce the injury (90-71 at 6:17 to go).
Wallace and Simms ended up eliminated by personal, in the Parisian ranks, which further decimated their options.
To make matters worse, two consecutive triples by center Olek Balcerowski served to certify the victory for the yellows (104-74) who assert the home court factor with more than 8,000 spectators in this match (8,093) and who will repeat the stage in the semifinals against Joventut de Badalona next week.
Datasheet:
104. Gran Canaria (32+29+21+22): Albicy (7), Brussino (-), Slaughter (15), Shurna (17) and Balcerowski (16) -initial team-; Inglis (23), K. Diop (5), Salvó (5), Bassas (8), Kljajic (3) and Benite (5) and Stevic (-)
Coach: Jaka Lakovic.
74. Paris Basketball (30+18+12+14): Wallace (13), Denis (6), Begarin (18), Simms (12) and Evans (5) -initial team-; Malwaya (-), Gegic (8), Kamagate (10), Diawara (2), Toupane (-) and Crespin (-).
Entrenador: Will Weaver.
Referees: Robert Lottermoser (Germany), Luka Kardum (Croatia) and Eduard Udyanskyy (United Kingdom). They eliminated the visiting player Aamir Simms by personal.
Incidents: Meeting corresponding to the quarterfinals of the Eurocup -eliminatory to a single match- played at the Gran Canaria Arena before 8,093 spectators. Gran Canaria reaches qualification for the semifinals with the victory. EFE