Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (EFE).- The Gran Canaria Basketball Club reacted in time to score the victory against a more than combative Girona (78-73) that allows them to certify their ticket for the Endesa League play-offs after a an agonizing duel that came to dominate from the first bars by the Catalan team.
The 17 points from AJ Slaughter, combined with the direction of Andrew Albicy and the versatility of Miquel Salvó -12 points, 5 rebounds and a PIR of 19- served to knock out a rival who, without Mar Gasol -injured at the last minute-, threw hand especially from the direction of Quino Colom -18 points and 4 assists-.
The visitors put the direct from the start with the success of Prkacin and Garino (3-10), causing Jaka Lakovic’s first timeout in less than three minutes of play.
The yellow team reacted after the technical break with three-pointers from Kljajic and Albicy (9-10), but Girona maintained the initiative with Quino Colom’s wrist, which stretched the difference to 10 points (11-21). Faced with such a panorama, Lakovic accelerated the rotations and managed to rebalance the contest at the end of the first quarter (18-21).
In the second act, the Claretian team adjusted lines in defense, putting the bolt on the attempts of Taylor, Figueras and Garino, until Khalifa Diop, with two free throws, equalized the game at 6:42 for the break (24-24). .
However, without Marc Gasol on the field due to injury, Colom took the lead -13 points in the first half- and continued to keep the visiting ship in the forefront (28-33). It took time for Gran Canaria to wake up, with Inglis and Salvó as protagonists, but Girona knew how to manage the rent to head into the changing room tunnel with a five-point advantage (32-37).
After the restart, the islanders tried again, but the shooting percentages suffered considerably. The usual shots from Brussino and Slaughter couldn’t find a hoop and not even Diop’s dunks were fortunate enough to translate into points. Faced with this situation, Girona took the opportunity to reach the maximum difference (32-43) in the middle of the third quarter.
From then on, the match entered into a spectacular succession of three-pointers in both rings, thus sweetening the low figures of the first half, the yellows encouraged by achieving the goal of reaching the second phase of the ACB and the people from Girona, spurred on by a possible victory in a more than difficult square (51-55).
The inaccuracies continued to proliferate in the last period. Salvó took the lead among the Gran Canarias while Sorolla and Vila gave oxygen to the Catalans (54-61). Diop and Slaughter sharpened the score to 60-61. And when it seemed that Girona’s attack was beginning to falter, Slaughter and Diop began to smell blood with 2:30 to go (69-65).
A triple from Taylor and a dunk from Prkacin put Girona back in the pomade (71-70), but Taylor’s own personal fifth, with 1:10 remaining, was a ballast series for García Reneses’ team.
In the end, a robbery by Slaughter in the area and two almost consecutive fouls on Inglis -which resulted in four free throws- allowed Gran Canaria to add a victory more than suffered to reach the second phase of the ACB (78-73). while Girona will have to continue waiting to be able to tie up their permanence in the Endesa League.
Datasheet:
78. CB Gran Canaria (18+14+19+27): Balcerowski (-), Albicy (13), Kljajic (5), Brussino (6) and Shurna (-) -initial team-; Slaughter (17), F. Bassas (5), Carrera (-), Inglis (8), Salvó (12), Diop (10) and Stevic (2).
73. Basketball Girona (21+16+18+18): Taylor (11), Prkacin (10), Colom (18), Miletic (4) and Garino (9) -initial team-; Figueras (7), Jenkins (5), Vila (3), Hill (3) and Sorolla (3).
Referees: Carlos Peruga, Sergio Manuel and Cristóbal Sánchez. Visiting player Kameron Taylor was eliminated by personal.
Incidents: Match corresponding to the thirtieth day of the Endesa League played at the Gran Canaria Arena before 5,413 spectators. In the run-up to the match, a tribute was paid to the visiting coach, Aíto García Reneses, who was presented with a commemorative shirt of the club he led between 2014 and 2016, being the first coach to lead the yellow team to a European final -Eurocup 2015-. EFE