Barça, displaying a great team game, took advantage this Tuesday in the Endesa League quarterfinal series against UCAM Murcia Club Baloncesto, which they overwhelmed by beating them at home by 23 points (68-91) and on Thursday, at the Palau Blaugrana, they will have the opportunity to seal their place in the semifinals.
Just 48 hours after losing by 25 at home against Valencia Basket at the close of the regular phase (77-102), the Catalans reacted in the best way against a rival that had just won 116-95 against Hiopos Lleida and had come in with three wins in a row and 14 in the 17 rounds of the second round.
Xavi Pascual, Barcelona coach, left Juan Núñez and Miles Norris out of the call and Sito Alonso, university coach, Rubén López de la Torre. David DeJulius and Howard Sant-Roos did participate, included in the ideal quintet and the best defensive quintet of the competition, respectively, and the visitors watched the entire game sitting on the bench, Nicolás Laprovittola and Willy Hernángomez.
The game began with both teams erratic – Barça wasted its first four attacks and UCAM made its debut precisely on its fourth possession with two free throws by Jonah Radebaugh. Next came two triples from the visitor Kevin Punter and the local Sander Raieste and the Murcia team led 10-5.
The Barça team, today in its cream-colored uniform, reacted with the success of Juani Marcos and Jan Vesely and closed the first quarter with an advantage (14-16).
In the second, after an unsportsmanlike foul against Darío Brizuela and five points in a row from Sant-Roos, the home team regained control (21-19). However, Vesely, Myles Cale and Brizuela, in tune, led to a 0-13 run that left the Catalans 21-32 after the halfway mark of that period.
Although Sito stopped the game from the sidelines, it took a while for the reaction to arrive. A triple by DeJulius – his first points – and a 2+1 by Kelan Martin seemed to wake up his team (27-32) but Brizuela was in gamer mode and, now with 16 goals in his personal account, he once again fired a Barça that reached 17 points (27-44 and 29-46). Halftime was reached with a free throw from Martin and the score was 30-46. 16-30 of those ten minutes explained what happened to them. The fourth best attack in the League, which is that of UCAM CB, aimed to be far from its 91.56 per game.
The match resumed with a greater difference (33-52) in a game in which neither DeJulius nor Punter were being decisive -six and five points until the 25th minute-. Detroit’s poor scoring was blamed more by his team than New York’s by his. Sito was punished with a possibly intended technical foul and the reaction, as usually happens after a referee decision of this type, came from the Murcians, who were 14 up (38-52). However, the offensive potential of the culés made them once again stretch the numbers in their favor (39-59 and 41-61).
The Murcian is not one of those teams that gives up in the face of adversity and once again placed itself at a distance that made it believe that a comeback was possible. In the ten minutes it would be 52-66 and that was after Joel Parra scored the last basket of the third quarter, with which he ended a 7-0 run.
A triple by Marcos and a 2+1 by Will Clyburn to start that period once again paved the way to victory for Barça and the distance reached 29 points at 58-87 and 60-89 with the match already languishing. Xavi Pascual’s men, functioning very well as a block, controlled the situation with solvency against an opponent who was not having a day shooting, especially from a distance – he finished with 6/28 in triples for a 21% effectiveness compared to his opponent’s 55% with 11/20.
The fans wanted to cheer until the end as a matter of pride and recognition of a brilliant season for UCAM CB in what could have been their farewell at the Palace as far as this season is concerned. This is what Sito Alonso’s men will try to avoid on Thursday at seven in the afternoon by winning at the Palau Blaugrana, an antagonistic approach to the one being done in Barcelona.
Technical sheet
68. UCAM Murcia Basketball Club (14+16+22+16): DeJulius (8), Radebaugh (10), Raieste (10), Toni Nakic (7) and Cacok (9) -starting team-, Michael Forrest (2), Sant-Roos (5), Falk (-), Cate (4), Moussa Diagne (-), Kelan Martin (12) and Hands (1).
91. Barça (16+30+20+25): Juani Marcos (10), Punter (7), Clyburn (12), Shengelia (5) and Fall (10) -starting five-, Cale (8), Vesely (10), Brizuela (18), Satoransky (4) and Parra (7).
Referees: Antonio Conde Ruiz, Arnau Padrós Feliu and Javier Torres Sánchez. They eliminated the visitor Juani Marcos (m.39).
Incidents: First game of the quarterfinals of the Endesa Basketball League that was played at the Palacio de los Deportes in Murcia before 5,824 spectators – in that entry, lower than the usual one in Murcia, it was influenced by a bad schedule for a weekday and that subscribers had to go to the ticket office. Before the start of the match, a minute of silence was held in memory of Pedro Muñoz Boj, who was a Juver Murcia player in the 80s and who died at the age of 63 due to an illness.