Baskonia strikes first and recovers home court factor

Baskonia strikes first and recovers home court factor

Those from Spahija storm La Fonteta and will play for the pass to the semi-finals at the Buesa Arena

MADRID, 24 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Bitci Baskonia beat Valencia Basket on Tuesday (79-80) in the first match of the 'Playoffs' for the 2021-2022 Endesa League title, a duel in which Joan Peñarroya's side missed the home court factor and that gives the Vitorians the opportunity to close their pass to the semifinals on Saturday at the Buesa Arena.

In the first match for the best of three matches, the 'taronja' team, in tow for much of the duel, rushed their options in a tight final that they did not know how to manage and that forced them to travel to Vitoria to win to force the third confrontation and recover the court factor.

The duel at La Fonteta started with a devilish pace, with Neno Dimitrijevic and Simone Fontecchio (9 points) pulling the cart for both teams, who did not allow their rival to escape in the light and closed the first quarter with maximum equality ( 21-21).

The 'taronja' team, without the Slovenian Klemen Prepelic and but with the Icelandic Martin Hermannsson, was perhaps excessively dependent on the Macedonian point guard, author of 10 points before the break, and underestimated the reaction of Neven Spahija's men from the bench, from which came 9 of the first 11 points of the Vitoria team in the second quarter.

Thus, the visitors, with a 5 of 10 in triples and six offensive rebounds translated into 9 points, took control of a juicy income that they knew how to manage and defend to go eight up to the locker room, after the Lithuanian Tadas Sedekerskis scored three free throws on the last play.

The hasty errors of Joan Peñarroya's men were repeated after the restart, although the local team knew how to react with five consecutive points and an assist from Sam Van Rossom to correct the -10 with which the Basques, led by Fontecchio and seconded by Matt Costello (13 points), had stood out.

The 'taronja' clenched their teeth to arrive with options at the end. With just over three minutes remaining, Xabi López-Arostegui scored a triple to balance the contest (75-75) and make the pavilion dream, which exploded with jubilation when Mike Tobey put his men ahead for the first time and Jaime Pradilla endorsed it (79-75).

Wade Baldwin closed the gap (79-78) and Costello put Spahija's men ahead again with a one-handed mate (79-80) with 54 seconds to go. The American point guard missed, with eight seconds to go, a triple that allowed Valencia Basket the opportunity to score to win, but Dimitrijevic also missed his shot.

--RESULT: VALENCIA BASKET, 79 - BITCI BASKONIA, 80 (35-43, at halftime).

VALENCY BASKETBALL: Dimitrijevic (15), Lopez-Arostegui (17), Claver (3), Pradilla (10) and Dubljevic (7) -- starting quintet--; Van Rossom (7), River (3), Port, Hanlan (2), Labeyrie (3), Tobey (12) and Hermannsson.

BITCI BASKONIA: Baldwin IV (15), Giedraitis (10), Fontecchio (15), Peters (3) y Enoch (10) --quinteto inicial--; Granger (4), Costello (15), Sedekerskis (2), Marinkovic (2) y Wetzell (4).

--REFEREES: Count, Aliaga and Torres. Without eliminated.

--PARTIALS: 21-21, 14-22, 27-24 and 17-13.

--PAVILLION: St. Louis Fountain.