FCBARCELONA.CAT

19.04.2008 23:36

Last second victory (68-67)

Sònia de Alba

AXA Barça scraped a win in the 31st ACB game of the season. Denis Marconato’s block of a Carlos Cabezas throw helped maintain the 68-67 score line.

AXA Barça has won the 31st ACB game of the season despite playing badly. The hard-fought victory against Unicaja gives AXA Barça the chance to finish second in the end of the regular phase, despite being dependent on what DVK Juventud do.

Bad Start

AXA Barça started off badly, lacking concentration, and the Malaga team was able to take the score to a 14-point advantage (10-24 after Santiago scored at the start of the second quarter).

Defensive domination

Unicaja became weaker once AXA Barça started to take control of the game. It was a match of constant defensive changes, gradually giving AXA Barça the upper hand. The best example was Denis Marconato coming on in the 12th second for Fran Vázquez to face Ndong.

Ersan Ilyasova and Gary Neal spurred on their team mates to lessen the gap, and with Pepe Sánchez coming on, by the end of the second quarter the difference was less than 10 (29-37).

50-50 draw

By the end of the third quarter, Barça were still unable to turn the score line around. Sánchez had controlled the pace, and both Ilyasova and Basile kept scoring. In last-minute triple from the Italian brought the score to a 50-50 draw.

Tension till the last second

Pascual’s men kept the score under control, but they couldn’t relax. A maximum of six points from Marconato, with Roger Grimau’s help, and two triples from Berni Rodríguez made the game tenser. After two free shots from Jiri Welsch, the game entered the dying minutes at 68-67.

With 5 seconds to go, the referee awarded Unicaja a foul, but Denis Marconato managed to block Carlos Cabezas’ throw to keep the 68-67 score line.

This was AXA Barça’s 23rd victory in the ACB. With only three games left before the play-off stage, their league position won’t be known under all Sunday’s games have been played.

Kasun, watching from the stands

Mario Kasun watched the game from the stands, after coach Xavi Pascual decided to rest the pivot for this game even though he has been given the medical thumbs-up.

Gary Neal was unable to finish the game, falling badly after scoring a point. On Sunday he’ll be undergoing medical tests to check the seriousness of the injury.