Euroleague – rooms – working day 3
Real Madrid will play the final four in Berlin. He added his third consecutive victory, this time in the Buesa and beat the best Baskonia of the series, which gave its all to the point of breaking it. They will have to wait another year. Chus Mateo’s team was relentless, when the Vitorian team’s strength began to fail, its legs to weaken, its vision to blur when shooting. Howard’s fountain dried up on the local side, Yabusele’s fountain flowed on the visitor’s side and Campazzo appeared for the broken and torn ones, to score six decisive points and to lead a powerful team, in which Tavares was not like other days , but the wardrobe is so extensive that not even its best version was needed.
The dresses of the women shine cheerleaders and their azulgrana pompoms while the track markers indicate a result of the globetrotters, 153-131 at the end of the first quarter, and the players cool down while they wait for the mess to be fixed, which is due to a computer error in the Euroleague program. It has been a good start for both of them, but the true result at that point is not so crazy, but a tie at 22 after the last basket by Poirier, the Madrid player most whistled for because he was previously a Baskonista. “We didn’t know how to stop their transitions in the first half,” confesses Chus Mateo. “Baskonia has a player who is extraordinary,” he refers to Howard, “and Marinkovic played a great game. Also Miller-Macyntire and Rogkavopoulos,” says the Madrid coach.
The feeling is one of equality in those minutes, although Baskonia seems to play with a touch more intensity. Kotsar has not yet taken the field, on a day of emotions for him, after becoming a father in the morning. Will his son arrive with a loaf of bread under his arm? When he comes out he commits a foul, he then scores his first shot, but it is not decisive.
After the scoring festival of the first half (56-52), Baskonia comes out alive and well, with the hope of improving, or at least, equaling its performances in the second. They had achieved leads of up to ten points against a Real Madrid team that came out cold in the second quarter, after the long break due to a computer failure. Better on the rebound, despite the intimidating power of Tavares and Poirier, Baskonia was able to run into the open field and take advantage of Howard’s wrist and ended up with an advantage on the way to the locker room.
After several errors on both sides, it was once again Baskonia who took the initiative in the second half and increased the lead to ten points, but Madrid gradually reduced it. “We wanted to arrive with options at the end, because we knew that Baskonia’s legs could be heavy. We have arrived with a distance that allowed us to overcome,” said Mateo.
The Vitorians survived and faced the final ten minutes with the minimum difference (73-72), so everything remained for the last quarter. The forces of the Vitorians were beginning to fail and the white team knew it. “Baskonia has taken advantage of their strengths while their engine has lasted,” commented Chus Mateo at the end. “They have played at a very high pace and that has probably benefited us a little bit.”
Real finally managed to take the lead (73-75) after a triple by Gabi Deck, but Baskonia reacted, climbing to five points, although they remained stuck at 80 points while Chus Mateo’s team added 13 in a row . “If we want to look for excuses we can,” says Dusko Ivanovic, “but this match is totally different from the previous two. This time we saw a Baskonia with character.”
However, it was the beginning of the end. Those from Vitoria pushed until the horn, with faith, although without much strength anymore, but Madrid endured the pull with Facundo Campazzo exercising his functions as a dam, and will be in the final four in Berlin, the third in a row, the sixth of the last seven disputed.
“It is very difficult to maintain this level,” Chus Mateo congratulates himself. “We have played 74 games, Baskonia, similar.” The hundred Real Madrid fans who traveled to Vitoria celebrated loudly in the stands when the cheerleaders They had already left and the fans, happy with their team’s game, but sad about the result, lined up from Zurbano to Vitoria. Madrid awaits a rival for the semi-finals – it will be Barça or Olympiakos – and is looking askance at the resolution of the rest of the pairings.
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