Barça enlarges Baskonia's European wound

Barça enlarges Baskonia's European wound

MADRID, 19 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Barça took the duel against Cazoo Baskonia this Thursday on the twentieth day of the Regular Phase of the Euroleague 2022-2023 after winning 78-85 at the Fernando Buesa Arena and further opening the wound of their rival in the highest competition continental.

The team from Vitoria could not avoid their fourth consecutive defeat, all of them in this 2023 in which they had launched. But now Joan Peñarroya's men have slowed down, mainly at the offensive level, while Markus Howard's effectiveness has dropped somewhat, gray (7 points, with only one basket in play and 1/7 in a three-pointer) against Sarunas Jasikevicius' men , more successful and intense in the two rings.

Barça grabbed 20 more rebounds than Baskonia (40-25), mainly thanks to the 18 offensive sacks they got and that advantage ended up being definitive. From there, his best success was against the Basque team volunteers, who launched more than three (8/28) than two (19/27).

From the initial jump the visiting team started better. A 5/5 from the line of three allowed him to command the electronic with some comfort (9-17). The local response was not long in coming, led by Sederkerskis (8 points), and Baskonia was able to turn the score around.

Two consecutive triples by Vanja Marinkovic confirmed the Baskonia improvement (26-23), but at the end of the first ten minutes the equality was absolute (28-28). And after the first scoring quarter, they went on to a slower one, which suited Jasikevicius' men better.

The Catalan team did their best in defense and their rival, deprived of Howard's points and without an aim from the triple, got stuck and was again down on the scoreboard (32-42) after a 2-12 run. Even so, they managed to rebuild to get closer again, although the visitors dominated at half-time (40-47).

After passing through the changing rooms, Barça knew how to handle the game better, in which they were no longer going to lose the initiative despite the unsuccessful efforts of Peñarroya's men. A '2 1' from Satoranski, with the addition of Howard's third, kept the Catalan team comfortably ahead (49-57).

Baskonia, in gusts, still had the mental toughness not to leave the game and with a good 8-2 run they got within shot of a tie (57-59). Howard was able to put him ahead, but he missed his sixth consecutive three-pointer and his team couldn't try for the rest of the game.

The final quarter, with the American point guard with four fouls on the bench, was also a visitor, thanks to his power in the offensive rebound, which ended any option for the Vitoria team, whose commitment to the triple continued without success.

A powerful '2 1' by Da Silva gave Barça air (67-74) and despite Howard's return, another offensive capture and another '2 1', by Satoransky, gave them a ten-point lead for the final minutes. Howard returned, but could not rescue his team despite the fact that his first and only triple gave emotion at the end.

--RESULT: CAZOO BASKONIA, 78 - BARÇA, 85 (40-47, at halftime).

CAZOO BASCONY: Thompson (10), Giedraitis (11), Ten (-), Sedekerskis (16) and Kotsar (10) --starting quintet--; Howard (7), Hommes (12), Costello (-), Kurucs (-), Marinkovic (6), Enoch (6) and Raieste (-).

BARÇA: Satoransky (11), Laprovittola (6), Kalinic (8), Mirotic (15) and Tobey (3) --starting five--; Kuric, Abrines (3), Da Silva, Sanli (7), Higgins (6), Jokubaitis (13) and Nnaji (4).

--PARTIALS: 28-28, 12-19, 23-17 and 15-21.

--REFEREES: Pukl, Lottermoser and Laurinavicius. Howard was fouled out.

--PAVEL: Buesa Sand.