FCBARCELONA.CAT

20.02.2010 19:51

Through to the final ! (64-72)

Jordi Clos

Regal Barça are through to Sunday’s final of the Spanish King’s Cup after seeing off Power Electronics Valencia 64-72. Xavi Pascual’s men played a very focussed game and ended up imposing their height and hard defensive work.

Three years after their last appearance, Barca are again back in a King’s Cup final after a hard working win over a Valencia team who never made it easy for them. It was good start from Barca who soon built up a 13 point lead, before Valencia’s interior game brought them back into contention. It was a close fought first half hour, but Barca upped their game in the final quarter to run out clear 64-72 win that saw them through to the final.

Strong defence

Barca’s quarter final against Cajasol had clearly taught them a few lessons and they came out focussed in defence and sharper in attack than their rivals. Five minutes in, Neven Spahija called his first timeout with the score at 4-12, but it failed to stop Barca’s progress as they pushed to a 9-22 lead thanks in great part to an intimidating display from Vázquez and the first quarter ended 13-22.

Hard work under the baskets

Nielsen led Power Electronics Valencia to an 8-0 start to the second quarter to cut Barca’s lead to just two points (22-24) and with Ricky sitting it out after two personal fouls, Barca were missing fluidity and it was only free throws that were keeping the scoreboard ticking over. Even though the presence of Navarro and Rafa Martínez had suggested that the game would be something of a duel between the big scorers, it was the intensity of the duels beneath the baskets that was catching the attention, with Nielsen and Perovic up against Lorbek and Ndong, with the height of the Barca pair helping their team to a narrow half time lead (32-35).

Lead opening up

Valencia’s first three pointer from Rafa Martínez drew them level at 39-39. If that meant their 1/ 9 stats were poor, Barca’s 2/13 were not much better, though things did pick up in the second half. The third quarter saw both teams swapping the lead before a late flurry and a tightening up of their defence gave Barca a 49-55 lead as they went into the final 10 minutes.

Final quarter Barca’s

A sensational Ricky with a 19 valuation and Vázquez with 16 marched Barca into a dominant lead in the final quarter as they raced to a 51-62 lead. Valencia had nothing left in the tank, whilst the Barca machine was purring powerfully away to take them into Sunday’s final.