College victory 80-72 in a WiZink that enjoyed the title
MADRID, 28 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Movistar Estudiantes beat Leyma Coruña 80-72 this Sunday in the final of the Princess of Asturias Cup, with a stellar appearance by the Latvian guard Toms Leimanis in the outcome, which helped the Madrid team win the second title in its history in this competition organized by the Spanish Basketball Federation (FEB).
In a WiZink Center that was not full but had a large capacity, there was no respite in the first quarter. Short and well-controlled distances, with point guard Alec Wintering standing out in the outside shooting of the schoolboys, supported on the inside by their center Kevin Larsen. Meanwhile, Alejandro Galán on the light bulb and Ingus Jakovics from outside responded to each local arreón.
The 21-21 that ended in the 10th minute demonstrated an equality that continued at the beginning of the second act, where the choral scoring of Coruña contrasted with a more fixed quintet in Estudiantes. His coach, Pedro Rivero, trusted in his usual weapons, the same ones that, without the sanctioned Michael Carrera, took the lead in the LEB Oro a few weeks ago.
One of those weapons is Alex Murphy, who put the hosts up 37-30 with a triple at 3:47 before the intermission. However, the Galicians responded soon through the work of Goran Huskic, until they were 39-38 a minute and a half after that break. Guillem Ferrando's reply, also from beyond the arc, established the score at 42-38 after two intense periods.
Upon resumption, Huskic continued to dominate in the low post and that encouraged Coruña, who turned the score around (44-47) with 5:35 left in the third period. Everything happened through the visitors' number 8, although along the way he left a couple of free throws and Wintering appeared again in the 'Estu', which instead suffered the ups and downs of Larsen.
Ferrando was not doing well either, Sergio Rodríguez was not doing well in attack despite his replacements from the bench and Murphy needed to rest. The collegiate team had gone into a tailspin, was short on rebound captures and was only kept alive by two errors by Beka Burjanadze, along with another by Sebastian Aris, from the triple line (50-54).
WINTERING AND LEIMANIS COME TO THE RESCUE
At the buzzer, Wintering hit a three-pointer on the board for local relief, starting the fourth quarter with 53-54. The student fans were then emboldened, led by La Demencia, and a basket by Johnny Dee raised the score to 55-54 in the pavilion. The visiting coach, Diego Epifanio, was forced to call a timeout to end his rival's streak, after a triple by Toms Leimanis 58-56 with 7:48 remaining.
But it had no effect and Murphy reappeared to give 'Estu' a five-point lead (61-56) with another triple, followed by a possible 3+1 by Dee, which, however, the referees indicated as a 'down' foul and not a foul. shot. But the face of 'Estu' had suddenly changed and Leimanis showed it with two more triples (67-58), with 4:39 left in the game.
With a steal in the middle of the court and a dunk on the run, Yannick Nzosa made it +11 (69-58) and the Epifanio pupils were doomed to the feat, in an outcome full of tension. It was noticeable with a hookup between Burjanadze and Wintering with four minutes left, but it did not go any further and also interrupted the students' rhythm.
With 2:38 left to settle the match, Rivero called a timeout after seeing how Coruña had gotten closer to 71-64. And Leimanis came to the rescue again, hitting from 6.75 meters to seal a victory with title value and that served as a certain revenge, after the altercation a month ago at Magariños and which led to the aforementioned sanction for Carrera.