UCAM Murcia, victory and retention of leadership
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UCAM Murcia Club Baloncesto remains firmly in the FIBA Champions League and tops its groupL, is among the top 16 in this continental competition with two victories in two days of the second stage after his victory this Tuesday over 90-81 Greek Promitheus Patras in a match that he dominated from the start and in which a final relaxation prevented him from achieving a much bigger victory.
SUMMARY
81. Promitheus of Patras (18+16+12+35): Koniaris (3), Hale (29), Jones (6), Stevens (8) and Chrysikopoulos (7) – starting team, Reynolds (-), Cowan (20), Basinas (-), Coffey (-) and Echenique (8).
Judges: Johan Rosso, France; Martins Kozlovskis from Latvia; and Dariusz Zapolski from Poland. They eliminated guest Echenique due to five personal fouls (m.33).
Incidents: Match corresponding to the second day of the FIBA Basketball Champions League Top 16 Group L, played at the Palacio de los Deportes in Murcia in front of approximately 4,000 spectators.
The Murcians bring their number of consecutive victories in Europe to seven – they are one step away from the club’s best international run of eight, achieved in the 2018/2019 season of the same tournament – they face a clash with the absence of Ludde Hakansson and Simon Birgander, both injured, and also without Rodion Kurucs, who became fathered his first child during the match and had permission to attend his wife’s birth.
The meeting began with a statement of intent from the Central Bank of UCAM, which decided 15-4 with four minutes left and already with 11 points scored by Dylan Ennis.including two triples and four points from Dustin Left.
Sito Alonso’s team didn’t stop, but their opponent woke up thanks to Hunter Hale, which led to the end of the first quarter with an eight-point difference (26-18).
In the second quarter, the team coached by Ilias Papatheodorou started better and this forced Sito to call time out earlier than he would have liked, after just 1 minute 23 seconds and with the score 26-22 on the scoreboard.
Back on the track nine almost consecutive points scored by Nemanja Radovic and seven more by Marko Todorovic – the Montenegrin combination worked very well – returned good dynamics to the university team. Howard St. Roos’ competitive dunk after stealing the ball gave Catholics its largest margin at the time (46-32), 14 points, which remained at 12 at halftime for a 46-34 lead.
At the restart, the university students again showed themselves to be very focused, which allowed them to maintain a comfortable cushion against an opponent in which Jaime Echenique, their most active center, sat with four personal fouls at the beginning of the second half. Troy Kapain’s three and another goal from Sant Roos increased the lead to more than 20 (65-44 in the 28th minute).
The match entered the final quarter tied 65–46 and baskets were exchanged with both teams already knowing that Murcia would win. The difference will stabilize and reach 22 points (74-52).
From there, the Promiteas, with Hale and Anthony Cowan connecting from outside, pushed the score home until they were within seven points of 88-81 at 14-29. Finally, there were nine in the last ten minutes after 25–35.
With this victory, UCAM CB topped a group in which AEK Athens, who were a priori their strongest rival, lost 79-68 at Hapoel Holon and are on a streak of two defeats in two days from the starting top 16. loses in Patras with a score of 80-79.