Barça had the strength left to get up after kissing the canvas harshly in Piraeus. The Peñarroya team closed this Sunday at the Palau an exhausting journey of four games in eight days, three of them at home and on hot courts, with a resounding victory against Leyma Coruña (106-80) that allows them to scare away ghosts and face calmly a much calmer week, without appointments until Friday.
After losing on Sunday in Malaga and winning on Tuesday in Istanbul, the tough defeat against Olympiacos had reopened some wound on the Barça side and their start to the game against the A Coruña team confirmed that they were still somewhat groggy. Epifanio’s team reached ten points ahead against a Barça that was still trying to land (16-26). “The change of chip came with the defensive improvement,” Peñarroya pointed out after the game. That’s how it was, because when his men began to tighten the screws a little on defense in the second quarter, they immediately turned the score around and began, little by little, to cement their own advantage, before ending up overwhelming their rival.
Joan Penarroya
“The wear and tear is very great and we have to take care of the players”
Barça’s superiority was such that it began to fuel that its coach was able to distribute efforts like almost never before and only Metu and Justin Anderson, both especially inspired, exceeded twenty minutes on the court. In fact, all twelve players in the rotation scored at least one point, leaving Peñarroya more than satisfied with their performance. “The wear and tear is very great and we have to take care of the players. It was an important game and we needed to react, and we did,” the coach congratulated himself.
The Barça victory had a double reward since it allowed them to reduce a victory with the leader, Unicaja, who against all odds had been overwhelmed on Saturday by a sidereal Baxi Manresa (109-69). The team from Malaga arrived in Congost after having won all 13 games played this season, including two titles (Intercontinental and Super Cup), but they took an historic beating. Ocampo’s men thus continue on the path of their dream of entering the Cup again, an objective to which this point difference can give a good boost.
At Barris Nord, for its part, there was a Sunday of passion that confirmed the good start to the season for Hiopos Lleida (80-70), which after six days allows itself to rub shoulders with the noble and cup-winning zone of the classification. A spectacular last quarter by Gerard Find’s team (26-10), drawn with the points of Bropleh and the soul of Paulí and Oriola, turned the score around against a MoraBanc Andorra that became dizzy, holding on only to Harding (26p ).
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