Barcelona, May 24 (EFE).- Barça closed the first phase of the Endesa League with a comfortable victory against UCAM Murcia by 86-57 after a glove clash that the Catalans had almost sentenced to rest (41-26). , in what was the hundredth victory of Sarunas Jasikevicius in the League.
With 24 assists (6 from Laprovittola) compared to 7 from UCAM, which committed eleven turnovers and a poor record of 7 of 3o triples, it was not the night for Sito Alonso’s team against a much superior rival.
After Barca’s failure in the Four-a-side Final in Kaunas, the atmosphere at the Palau was quite cold, but Jasikevicius’s men, who were not risking anything since they were mathematically first in this phase, came out to improve their image.
Up ahead was UCAM Murcia, ninth in the table and coming after four consecutive victories, but if they wanted to enter the playoffs for the title they had to win in Barcelona and wait for Valencia’s defeat against Breogán. And Valencia, who will be Barça’s rival in the quarterfinals, lost (77-80).
Although the Catalans, who have not lost at the Palau in the entire first phase, did not start well from the line of 6.75, the Czech Jan Vesely made the difference with 10 points in the first quarter, while UCAM failed especially in the second quarter. shots of two (3 of 9).
After going 23-15 in the first period with constant rotations on both sides, Barça went all out at the start of the second with a 7-0 run (30-15, m.13), with Sertac Sanli very effective and after a time by Sito Alonso that changed his defense to the zone. This stopped Barça and the awakening of the former NBA point guard from UCAM, Chris Chiozza reduced the gap (33-24), but the locals with more resources opened the gap at halftime (41-26 ).
Two consecutive triples from the American with a Georgian passport Thad McFadden made the visitors react at the beginning of the third quarter (43-34, m.23). Barça’s response through Niko Mirotic and Tomas Satoransky left things as they were (52-36, m.26).
Murcia’s new time, with a man’s defense now, to put order in the defense although Barça moved the ball very easily and only McFadden, with 12 points in this quarter, answered for UCAM and the score indicated a clear 62-44 at the end. of the period.
With everything decided, an absurd technique Sito Alonso made it 66-44 (m.32) at the beginning of the last period and the effectiveness of Sanli, together with the speed of Rokas Jokubaitis made the visitor’s defensive effort useless.
With 72-48, (m.34), Alonso stopped the match and his men, failing excessively in attack, improved in defense, but the free throws and more effectiveness gave Barça the maximum advantage (86-55,m .40).
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– Datasheet:
86 – Barça (23+18+21+24): Satoransky (4), Laprovittola (3), Abrines (5), Mirotic (11) and Vesely (14) -starting five-, Sanli (15), Kuric (8 ), Jokubaitis (11), Kalinic (6), Sergi Martínez (-), Tobey (5) and Nnaji (4).
57 . UCAM Murcia (15+11+18+13): Chiozza (7), Jelínek (4), Rojas (4), Radovic (9) and Pustovyi (6) – starting five – Bellas (4), Anderson (3) , Nikolic (-), McFadden (14), Sakho (4), Diop (2) and Andronicashvilli ().
Referees: Emilio Pérez Pizarro, Jorge Martínez and Carlos Merino. Eliminated: Sakho (m.37).
Incidents: Match corresponding to the thirty-fourth day of the 2022.2023 Endesa League, played at the Palau Blaugrana in Barcelona before 3,946 spectators.