Barça recovers the pulse to the Euroleague
Mirotic and Vesley eclipse Campazzo in a culé victory forced to consolidate the ‘Top 4’
MADRID, 17 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Barça beat Red Star (85-79) this Friday on matchday 29 of the Euroleague held at the Palau Blaugrana, with a good start to the last quarter and temperance so as not to lose for the third straight game in European competition and thus recover the rhythm in the fight for the ‘Top 4’ of the table.
Sarunas Jasikevicius’s team endured the warm-up of Facundo Campazzo (24 points) in the second half and left behind an important victory at the Palau, to go up 19-10 and regain third place, although tied with Monaco. Nikola Mirotic and Jan Vesely, with 21 points each, were decisive at home.
With the urgency of the two defeats last week, Barça made a start in attack and defense, with Abrines’ three-pointers and forcing losses on the Serbs. Bentil escaped from that local tangle and kept a Red Star who lived finding the inside game due to the lack of success on the outside.
The rotation did not sit well with ‘Saras’ and the visiting team had its moment in the second quarter. However, between Abrines’ 4 of 4 of three, Mirotic and Vesley put Barça back in command that neglected a more juicy income on the way to halftime (40-36). Mitrovic was the one who pulled the visiting car.
Without the punch of Campazzo or Vildoza, the Serbian team saw a Barça that did put them away. Satoransky and Mirotic opened up a gap at the restart, but ‘Facu’ didn’t take long to warm up. The former Real Madrid player hit three three-pointers in a row and Abrines missed the fifth, the bright one more even (50-48).
The tangle became Serbian and the Culé team became entangled in losses that cost them their income in the last quarter (57-57). ‘Saras’ asked his team for toughness but it was the visitors’ defense that worked, scoring 11 points from Campazzo in the third quarter. Vesley and Mirotic gave the Barça game another boost, although Barça had to sweat the victory scaring away ghosts.
The locals, accused many times by their coach of not killing matches, finished off the match with good deeds from Jokubaitis, more resources than those of Dusko Ivanovic, entrusted to ‘Facu’. A triple by Kalinic returned Barça’s smile in the Euroleague, while Red Star sees the ‘Top 8’ three wins away.
DATASHEET.
–RESULT: BARÇA, 85 – RED STAR, 79. (40-36, at halftime).
–EQUIPMENT.
BARÇA: Laprovittola (3), Satoransky (13), Abrines (12), Mirotic (21) and Sanli (2) –starting five–; Vesely (21), Kalinic (5), Tobey (-), Kuric (-), Jokubaitis (8), Paulí (-), Da Silva (-).
RED STAR: Campazzo (24), Vildoza (7), Lazarevic (-), Bentil (11) and Martin (2) –starting five– Mitrovic (11), Petrusev (12), Ivanovic (6), Markovic ( 6).
— PARTIALS: 18-15, 22-21, 17-21, 28-22.
–REFEREES: Radovic, Paternico and Balak. No deleted.
–HALL: Palau Blaugrana.