The busy start to the week experienced by Real Betis Basketballwith that fight between Pedro Fernández, its president, and the City Council, overshadowed the excellent victory, one of the best of the season, sealed by Gonzalo García de Vitoria’s squad against Hestia Menorca in San Pablo. A highly qualified victory that confirmed Betis’ undefeated status in San Pablo with one day left until the end of the first round. The one that will live this Saturday in the Fernando Martín pavilion, in Fuenlabradain a match with ACB flavor between the two Primera FEB defenses that are less permissive for their rivals. Those that grant fewer points. If Betis Baloncesto’s team is close to excellence, with an average of 73.4 points against, what can we say about Flexicar Fuenlabrada’s team, which stops its opponents at the barrier of 72.8. A real wall.
Concreted in its ring, the Madrid team It stands as a most demanding test to gauge Betic’s potential against rivals of the same size in the category who, to date, are just a point above. That says the balance of victories and defeats. The Green and Whites have four defeats compared to only two for Fuenlabrada, who on the first day lost on their home field against San Pablo Burgos (70-79) and four ago lost the Madrid derby with Movistar Estudiantes (90-78). Until that setback, the group trained by Toni Ten He had completed a run of eleven straight victories. An impressive streak of results that enhances the quality of a squad designed for the same objective as Betis Baloncesto: the return to the Endesa League.
Fuenlabrada, after their victories over Tizona Burgos and Ourense, the latter at home, rose to second position in the table, with the same balance of results as Estudiantes, third. Fourth is Betis, which has three wins in a row, which are actually five with the two achieved against Alimerka Oviedo in the Spanish Cup.
Basketball is unpredictable. It always brings surprises, or at least it does often and many times the matches break down a priori unexpected paths, but between the two best locks in the competition it is normal for defense and strategy to prevail, a slow pace where Betis Baloncesto he performs much better, especially if the defensive work is complemented by an inspired day from his three-point shooters. With 15 successes out of 27 attempts, he destroyed the containment dams of Hestia Menorca last daywhich appeared in San Pablo with a reputation as an armored team and left with 89 points in its bag.
Cvetkovic returns; Tunde is released
If Betis adds defensive chops and accurate shooting to his usual competitiveness, he becomes a real bone. As is Fuenlabrada, whose defensive averages inspire respect: their opponents barely hit 46% of their two-pointers and 28% of their three-pointers. This means that Fuenlabrada protects itself as well around its rim as it does on the perimeter, precisely where Betis concentrates most of its talent. In the absence of Cvetkovic, who reappears this Saturday, Renfroe has become the true leader of Betis Basketballgiving authentic recitals in direction and contributing, as a multipurpose player, in all parameters of the game. Hughes is being very consistent, always faithful to his appointment with double digits in scoring, and Benite somewhat more irregular, but against Menorca he reached 20 points.
Betis Baloncesto, however, is distinguished above all by its competitive instinct and the commitment of a locker room that has overcome many difficulties in the form of injuries and has promotion in category between its eyebrows. In Fuenlabrada, furthermore, it will no longer be Pablo Marinwho has closed his time at Betis to continue his career in Huesca; and the participation of his latest signing is expected, Tundewho could not debut last day. Without DeBisschop or Álex Suárez, the Sierra Leonean must provide extra energy, athletic and defensive ability, as well as intimidation to even acquire a leading role on the boards.
-
Flexicar Fuenlabrada: Westermann (1.98, 99); Jorgensen (1.88, 4); Munnings (1.96, 22); Iván Cruz (2.08, 33); Nwogbo (2.03, 24) -possible starting five-; Matulionis (2.00, 3); Zurbriggen (1.85, 5); Bilbao (2.05, 9); Nzosa (2,10, 12); Edu Durán (1.95, 16).
-
Real Betis Basketball: Renfroe (1.91, 32); Benite (1.94, 8); Jelinek (1.94, 25); Radoncic (2.02, 88); Kasibabu (2.02, 13) -possible starting five-; Hughes (1.93, 3); Cvetkovic (1.88, 4); Tunde (2.03, 7); Attention (1.78, 10); Domènech (2.08, 12); Rubén López de la Torre (2.02, 16).
-
Referees: Lema Parga, Gómez Luque, Martínez Estopiñán.
-
Time and TV: 6:30 p.m. (LaLiga Plus app).
Dangerous arguments
All of those qualities will be missing for Betis to counteract Nwogbo and Nzosathe two five from Fuenlabrada, blockers by profession, but also Iván Cruz and Jorge Bilbao. Like Betis, their rival has two excellent point guards (Westermann and Zurbriggen) and accredited perimeter fire with the Jorgensen-Matulionis-Munnings triplet. The green and white club had the first of them on track this past summer, but the lack of definition of the entity until the arrival of the Hereda Group made it impossible for the signing to materialize. It was not the only objective that escaped until, when the club was sold to Pedro Fernández’s company, the foundations of an ambitious project were laid that set two challenges: the Spanish Cup and promotion. The second is more important than the first. And that is why this duel in Fuenlabrada has so much weight, with which the halfway point of the season is reached before the parenthesis that next week will involve the celebration in Burgos of the Final Four of the cup tournament, where Betis Baloncesto will also be.
#defenses #FEB #face #face #Fuenlabrada
