Led by Ante Tomic’s dominance in the paint (21 points) and Kyle Guy’s three-pointers (25 points), Joventut Badalona defeated the current runner-up of the Eurocup this Tuesday at the Palau Olímpic basketball team, Frutti Extra Bursaspor (83-82), who never gave up.
RESUME
82- Frutti Extra Bursaspor (22+11+17+32): Needham (16), Clemmons (6), Bitim (17), Dudzinski (16), Auguste (15) -initial team-, Sezgun (-), Sybir (-), Ozalp (-), Taskiran (-), Al (5) and Duverioglu (7).
Referees: Piotr Pastusiak (POL), Leandro Lezcano (ITA) and Josip Radojkovic (CRO). They eliminated visiting Needham with five fouls (min.40).
Incidents: match of the eleventh day of the Eurocup played at the Palau Olímpic in Badalona in front of 3,127 spectators.
A free kick from Andrés Feliz with 1.6 seconds left sealed a victory that the green and black seemed to have on track going into the last minute with nine points of advantage. This shock did not tarnish the solid performance of the green and black team, which dominated the score from the second quarter after a cold start.
In the absence of the injured Pau Ribas, Albert Ventura served as a veteran and marked with his delivery the physical bar of the team. In attack, Henry Ellenson (12 points) and Joel Parra (11) seconded Tomic and Guy.
More aggressive from the start, the Turkish team took advantage of the losses of the ‘Penya’ and the offensive rebound to build a quick partial (0-7, min.3), which was replicated with the defensive improvement of the green and black and the prominence in the paint of Tomic, a constant source of fouls (13-14, min.6).
The success of Daniel Dudzinski and Onuralp Bitim -14 goals between them in the fourth- They once again boosted Frutti Extra Bursaspor on the scoreboard (13-22, min.8), but Henry Ellenson’s scoring irruption, with 8 points in a row, tightened the score at the end of the first round (20-22).
When precipitation took hold of the duel, the ‘Penya’ leaned on the defense to tie (27-27, min.16). Denied on the perimeter and with no way to penetrate, Frutti Extra Bursaspor ran aground, and Joventut took off with four points from Tomic between three-pointers from Joel Parra and Kyle Guy (37-33, rest).
Although Anthony Clemmons reestablished the connection with the Turkish inside game after passing through the changing rooms, Joventut endured the exchange of blows thanks to Tomic (47-42, min.25). Parra, Guy and Ventura contributed in the Croatian’s absence to keep the Catalan team ahead at the end of the third period (58-50).
A three-pointer from Ellenson and two more from Guy seemed to put the win on track at the beginning of the last quarter (68-56, min.32), but Derek Needham came to the rescue of his team with 13 points in a row. In a last minute to forget, not exempt from arbitration controversies, Joventut wasted a 9-point deficit (82-82).
On the last possession of the match, Andrés Feliz went to the free throw line and scored the winning shot (83-82), that keeps the Catalan team in the second position of group A of the Eurocup.