Gran Canaria has added a hard and balsamic victory this Tuesday in the United Kingdom against a fierce London Lions that put him against the ropes with a high dose of muscle, although in the end the success from abroad allowed the Canarian team to add their sixth victory in the Eurocup (57-60).
RESUME
60. CB Gran Canaria (17+15+19+9): Inglis (4), Balcerowski (-), Bassas (8), Brussino (11) and Mutaf (-) -initial team-; Benite (3), Kljajic (-), Slaughter (10), Shurna (13), Salvó (4), Diop (3) and Stevic (4).
Referees: Michele Rossi (Italy), Tomasz Trawicki (Poland) and Denis Hadzic (Serbia). They eliminated the yellow player Damien Inglis by double technique.
Incidents: Match corresponding to the twelfth day of Group B of the regular phase of the Eurocup for clubs -Eurocup- played at The Copperbox Arena in London.
The versatility of the American John Shurna (13 points and 3 rebounds) together with the physical display of the Senegalese Khalifa Diop (3 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks) allowed to stop the push of local starsin this case the American Sam Dekker (18 points) and the Hellenic interior Kosta Koufos (another 15 and 11 rejections).
With this victory, the Claretian team also guarantees its ticket to the next phase of the Eurocup with 10 wins and 2 losses, also maintaining the best balance of the entire competition, which allows it to have options to have the field factor in all knockout matches if he manages to maintain this first place in the regular phase.
Jaka Lakovic’s men got off to a good start, especially from the outside shot, with Brussino and Bassas surprising the Londoners with a 2-8 start. Ryan Schmitd’s men brought speed and physicality with transitions from Sam Dekker and Kosta Koufos to turn the score 9-8, but again Gran Canaria ended the first quarter with a 2-9 run (11-17).
In the second round, the local team took the game to their ground, turning it into an uncomfortable runner.
However, the failures multiplied in both zones, considerably reducing the offensive flow in the two hoops. But in the end, Shurna and Slaughter’s wrist gave oxygen to the canaries, who closed the contest at half-time with a six-point lead (26-32).
Already at the restart, Brussino and Slaughter returned to the charge to extend the distance from the line of three, unhinging an opponent who seemed to have found the ideal equation to equalize the contention, but Gran Canaria was in charge of stopping the local euphoria (26-39) in an instant.
Only Dekker managed to emerge among the very poor percentages of the London Lions (18.2% in triples until the third quarter) with his dunks and penetrations (40-51).
A double technical foul by Frenchman Damien Inglis in the last period It was quite a short circuit for Gran Canaria, which saw how little by little the rival was eroding their advantage, which reached 11 before facing the last ten minutes of the clash until reaching 57-58 with five seconds to go.
In that tight final stretch, the two free throws scored by Brussino dictated a more than agonizing victory for the yellows (57-60).