FCBARCELONA.CAT

26.03.2009 22:27

Tied series! (85-62)

Sònia de Alba

Regal Barça drew level with TAU Ceramica in their bid to make the Euro League Final Four with an emphatic 23 point-win. A scoreline that reflected a serious job well done from the first to the last minute.

Following Tuesday’s first game defeat, Barca new they had to come back strong and putting their faith in their abilities, they certainly did the business over the Basque team and can go into the next two games in Vitoria with their confidence high.

The s ame Beginning

The game may have started as the last one finished, with a two on one play from Vitoria’s Tiago Splitter, but from then on in this was a different story altogether as Barca refused to be intimidated and imposed themselves on the visitors. It was vital that Barca avoided giving away the ball and making simple errors and keeping their concentration. Just one example of this was the way Daniel Santiago won his personal battle with Splitter, calling on all his experience to come out top.

Different evolution

Even though TAU managed to edge ahead in the first quarter, with Will McDonald and Pete Mickeal bagging three pointers to finish the quarter at 23-24, the Basques were never able to shake off Barca, who took the first 5 points of the second quarter via Roger Grimau and a three pointer from Juan Carlos Navarro. Even though Igor Rakocevic, maximum points scorer with 18, managed to claw TAU back, there was clearly a different feel to this tie and with Pascual rotating Andersen and Lakovic for the hardworking Ilyasova and Víctor Sada, Regal began to take charge and led 46-40 at the break.

A better Barça

Again TAU came back at the restart with Pete Mickael scoring five consecutive points to bring them level, but with the Palau crowd behind them, Regal began to take charge. Fran Vazquez again put in a great performance and he now started to snuff out the threat from McDonald, whilst Ilyasova and Roger Grimau also upped their games and the third quarter closed at 60-47.

It was all one way traffic now and a three pointer from Vlado Ilievski , who later limped off with an ankle injury, rounded off a flurry of 10 points for Barca without reply from the visitors and not even a time out from Ivanovic was enough to stop Barca who marched to a 27 point difference at 85-58 before Rakocevic and Teletovic saved some honour for the visitors to finish the tie at 85-62.

Next Tuesday sees the next tie in Vitoria and Xavi Pascual’s team will look to take both games in the Basque capital, or at the very least bring the series back to the Palau for a fifth game to book their ticket for the Final Four in Berlin.