Barcelona also fails in Gran Canaria and maintains the lead before the Copa del Rey

Barça overcame this Sunday the resistance of the Herbalife Gran Canaria based on rotations and intensity in the painting (65-81) in a duel in which he played rest for the power forward Nikola Mirotic, top scorer of the Endesa League.

The trio Oriola-Higgins-Tomic (44 points among the three) closed all glimpses of epic by the islanders, who could only hold on this occasion to the success of Georgian Beqa Burjanadze (13 points and 16 valuation) and Beirán ( another 11 and 3 rebounds).

In a start of great tactical rigor, not free of precipitations in attack, the Herbalife began hitting with the medium distance shots of Shurna and Harper, placing in the electronic a 10-4 in the middle of Ecuador of the first quarter.

Two consecutive Tomic hooks, plus a triple of Oriola, allowed the Catalan team to flip the scoreboard (10-11) and, with the passing of the rotations, Barça once again exhibited its greater closet depth, sealing the first fourth with a 15-20.

The meeting hardened in the following period, with numerous personnel in both rings, defense throughout the field and a carousel of changes that allowed to increase the intensity of the crash, although the score was kept in low figures.

A triple by Fabio Santana and another from Burjanadze gave hope to the Claretian team (23-25), but an intentional foul by Bourousis on Smits gave oxygen back to Barcelona (23-29).

Burjanadze led his team, but stroking the boards in the electronic, the Canarian team saw how Barça, very successful in painting and from the line of staff (28-36), returned to move away on the scoreboard, which led to a new dead time of Fotis Katsikaris.

With the initial quintet again on track, the Herbalife managed to cauterize half a wound with two pitches from outside Harper and Costello, but a final mate of the Ukrainian Artem Pustovyi left the contest 36-42 in favor of the visitors.

In the resumption, Barcelona continued administering its small mattress, surpassing the ten points of distance in the 26th minute (42-55), after a tray of Tomic and a triple of Oriola.

Despite the tactical stop imposed by the Katsikaris board, the spill was maintained with its particular drip of 13 points (51-64).

Faced with this panorama, the Herbalife launched its ordage especially from the perimeter, but the success was not that of previous nights. On the other hand, the Catalan team did not miss any loopholes, surpassing the score after an 'alley-oop' to Hanga's board (56-76) five minutes before the conclusion.

From there, the meeting entered a phase of makeup and scoring aesthetics, with the Claretians trying in vain to minimize bleeding, while the secondary players of the squad continued to fatten their statistics in the final stretch.

– Data sheet:

–Herbalife Gran Canaria (15 + 21 + 15 + 14): Cook (7), Shurna (4), Rabaseda (7), Costello (5), Harper (9)? Initial quintet-, Okoye (2), Bourousis (-), Santana (7), Diop (-), Burjanadze (13) and Beirán (11).

–Barça (20 + 22 + 22 + 17): Hanga (6), Oriola (14), Abrines (-), Higgins (16), Tomic (14)? Initial quintet-, Davies (8), Smits (6), Pustovyi (6), Delaney (4), Kuric (5) and Claver (2).

–Referees: Carlos Peruga, Francisco J. Araña and Cristóbal Sánchez Cutillas. Matt Costello was eliminated by personnel.

–Incidents: Match corresponding to the twenty-first day played in the Gran Canaria Arena before 7,271 spectators, according to official figures of the club.