Barça straightens the course in Monaco
Jasikevicius’ men press in defense and kill in the third quarter to recover sensations
MADRID, 14 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Barça prevailed (63-69) this Wednesday against AS Monaco on matchday 13 of the Euroleague held at the Salle Gaston Medecin, thanks to a good defensive performance and a third quarter in which they found the right way to avoid suffering at the end.
Sarunas Jasikevicius’ men took an almost forced victory despite visiting the field of a better team in the table. Barça, which now equals the Monegasque team at the top (9-4), made its intentions clear with that defense and Nikola Mirotic, who is beginning to pick up pace after two weeks of competition, put the points.
The Spanish-Montenegrin’s 15 stood out in a low-scoring match, along with Cory Higgins who left behind the low back pain that prevented him from being in the defeat against ASVEL Villeurbanne last week. Laprovittola (7 points and 8 assists) led a Barça team well that the cushion they added at 16-26 after the break came in handy.
In the first half, the battle was very even, with Mirotic being the only one capable of standing out. Motiejunas and Moerman did it on the premises, but Monaco ran out of ideas and no response in the third quarter. The resumption gave wings in the light to a Barça that had just won suffering in Lugo and, before Asvel, another defeat in the League against Monbus Obradoiro.
Jan Vesely also left a good game for the Catalans and doubts flew in the Principality, although not entirely, since Monaco stayed in the game and left Barça to nine points in the last quarter. Those of ‘Saras’ leave with a balsamic victory to continue growing up the table, stopping a direct rival who missed the success of Mike James.
DATASHEET.
–RESULT: AS MONACO, 63 – BARÇA, 69. (29-34, at halftime).
–EQUIPMENT.
AS MONACO: Okobo (5), James (16), Blossomgame (7), Brown (2) y Motiejunas (11) –quinteto inicial–; Moerman (10), Diallo (4), Hall (8), Ouattara (-), Strazel (-).
BARÇA: Laprovittola (7), Satoransky (8), Kalinic (5), Mirotic (15) and Sanli (5) –quinteto inicial–; Higgins (9), Tobey (3), Vesely (8), Kuric (6), Jakobaitis (-), Da Silva (3).
— PARTIALS: 13-16, 16-18, 16-26, 18-9.
–REFEREES: Ryzhyk, Radovic and Vilius. No deleted.
–PAVILION: Salle Gaston Medecin.