Mirotic allows Barça to close the year with an epic
A triple from the Montenegrin in the last breath forced the extension that ended with the Red Star
MADRID, 30 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Barça closed the year with victory after beating Red Star (94-99) on matchday 16 of the Euroleague held this Thursday at the Aleksandar Nikolic Hall in Belgrade, thanks to a stellar Nikola Mirotic who forced overtime at the last breath.
The Hispanic Montenegrin, who had a bad first half, appeared at the end and with a triple at the buzzer forced five more minutes that were visitors, to continue at the top (11-5). The culé team, which had just lost in Valencia, gave themselves a last epic game in 2022, in a Pionir to burst, as a test for January 2 in the League against Real Madrid.
Red Star, who changed course since Dusko Ivanovic’s arrival on his bench a month and a half ago, had him in his hand, but saw his best moment of the course stopped short. Those from Belgrade (8/9), still without being able to count on Facundo Campazzo, are tenth looking closely at the tight ‘playoffs’.
Barça read all the offensive advantages very well to begin to dominate the match from the beginning. Thus, the team led by Sarunas Jasikevicius found their great ally in Tomas Satoranski from the line of three (4/4) to allow the Catalans to close the first quarter with an advantage on the scoreboard (17-28).
Even so, the locals threatened to reduce the distance in the second, with a great inside game by Filip Petrusev (15p) that did not stop threatening the culé defense. With a 23-15 run at halftime, the Belgrade team joined forces in attack to nullify an apathetic Barcelona that went to the locker room with an advantage thanks to Laprovittola’s final reaction (40-43).
Lack of concentration continued to be a problem for the visitors after the restart. Not very successful under the hoop, Jasikevicius’ men did not finish finding Mirotic. Thus, Dusko Ivanovic’s men put the Catalans against the ropes, with a stellar Petrusev (24p), which allowed them to reach the last set ahead on the scoreboard (65-57).
Far from reacting, the culés once again left doubts in defense unable to stop a Nemanja Nedovic (16) key in the handle of the Belgrade team. However, the two triples from Abrines in the middle of the last quarter allowed the Catalans to close the gap and threaten the comeback.
Thus, ‘Saras’ men were activated again from the line of three to tie the duel and reach a frantic end of the game. Although the Lithuanian coach’s slate did not finish working in the first instance with Cory Higgins, it did work out for Mirotic, with a month of competition after an injury increasingly toned, to take a triple up his sleeve that sent the game to extra time .
The culés took advantage of the high to finish imposing themselves. Higgins and Satoransky’s triples ended up decanting a match that Barça knew how to resist until the end, in the fervor of the Serbian crowd, to take a victory of merit before going to Madrid.
DATASHEET:
–RESULT: RED STAR, 94 – BARÇA, 99. (40-43, at halftime).
–TEAMS:
RED STAR: Vildoza (-), Nedovic (24), Lazarevic (-), Mitrovic (18) and Petrusev (24) –starting five–; Kuzmic (-), Lazic (-), Dobric (14), Bentil (4), Holland (7), Markovic (3) and Ilic (-).
BARÇA: Laprovittola (7), Satoransky (19), Kalinic (7), Mirotic (12) and Vesely (10) –starting five–; Higgins (15), Da Silva (3), Paulí, Abrines (14), Sanli (10), Tobey (-), Kuric (-) and Jokubaitis (2).
— PARTIALS: 17-28, 23-15, 25-14, 19-17, 10-15
–REFEREES: Lottermoser, Mogulkoc and Alliko. Eliminated Petrusev for fouls.
–HALL: Aleksandar Nikolic Hall.