Lugo, December 11 (EFE) side of a Río Breogán who made the task difficult until the end, but who lacked lucidity in the decisive moments.
Despite the absence of Sertac Sanli, Álex Abrines and Cory Higgins at the Pazo dos Deportes, Barcelona have recovered from their slowdown, although they haven’t entirely dispelled their doubts.
Hollatz, with a shot from two, opened the scoring, but James Nnaji, who made a sensational start to the game, and Oriol Paulí, who accompanied him in this first sequence, have already given Barcelona the advantage. The two added twelve of the first fourteen points for the Catalans, who had seven returned after five minutes (9-16).
Breogán resisted his rival’s initial momentum. Despite the fact that he only converted one of the first four he had in free throws, he managed to tie the match with a hat-trick from Sergi García (19-19, m.8) which provoked a time out for Sarunas Jasikevicius.
Brajkovic put Breogán in front and Nenadic widened (23-20, m.9), but Tobey equalized with a triple when Vesely had to momentarily go to the bench with a sprained ankle. The Lugonais finished the first quarter in front (25-23) with a ‘churro’ from Nenadic.
It took Mrsic half a minute to stop the game in the second period after a transition from Satoransky cost Sergi García a fight. Kalinic and Jokubaitis reverse the score again (25-28, m.13) for lack of success from the locals.
The score was 27-28 until Hollatz, after more than a minute and a half, moved it for Breogán to lead the game (29-28, m.15). Jasikevicius was on fire and his rival disconcerted him with a Bamforth hat-trick (40-37, m.18). Vesely, recovered, converted three consecutive baskets and Barça reached the break with three points in rent (40-43).
Two consecutive hat-tricks by Laprovittola and one by Mirotic after the intermission (44-52, m.22) led Mrsic to stop the match again. On the pitch, his side reacted (54-53, m.26), but Barca weren’t far behind and five straight points from the Argentine made it 54-58 to which Hollatz responded with 6.75 (59 -58, m.27) .
In the last ten minutes, they drew (61-61). Jokubaitis made it 2+1 after an error by Sergi García (62-64), who recovered with a three-pointer. Another basket from Brajkovic encouraged Pazo and forced Jasikevicius to take a break (67-64, m.34).
Barcelona accelerated with a 0-7 run at the most opportune moment (67-71, m.36) and Breogán was not lucid on a foul by Jokubaitis which the referees deemed unsportsmanlike after examining it, whose they did not take advantage and the visitors, they ended up taking the game with a good defense in the last minutes.
Although Breogán resisted (71-74 at 1:24), the lack of determination in the attacks and a hat-trick from Mirotic crushed him even if Hollatz put more pressure (74-77) with another successful shot from 6.75 with 14 seconds remaining.
-Technical sheet:
74-Río Breogán (25+15+21+13): Bamforth (12), Momirov (-), Hollatz (16), Happ (8), Nakic (5) -starting five- Nenadic (9), Sergi Quintela (3), Sergi García (7), Lukovic (4), Brajkovic, (6) and Arteaga (4).
78-Barcelona (23+20+18:+17) Paulí (6), Satoransky (7), Laprovittola (13), Mirotic (16), Nnaji (12) -starting five- Tobey (3), Jokubaitis (5 ), Kuric (2), Vesely (6) and Kalinic (8).
Referees: Benjamin Jiménez, Javier Torres and Vicente Martinez Silla. Kalinic was disqualified for a technical foul (m.39), from Barcelona.
Incidents: Match of the eleventh day of the Endesa League played at the Pazo dos Deportes de Lugo in front of 5,146 spectators.