By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Gran Canaria saw Buducnost almost completely erasing a 21-point (86 – 65) fourth-quarter lead and make the game up for grabs down the stretch but ultimately got a 95 – 85 win.
That was the third victory in a row for Gran Canaria in EuroLeague following their road wins over Olimpia Milano and Dacka. The Spanish team is now 5-7 and one win away from playoff teams.
Buducnost dropped to 3-9. Coach Aleksandar Dzikic’s players made an immense turnaround effort in the fourth period but couldn’t complete it in the end.
With the score 89 – 70 and six minutes remaining, Buducnost players took advantage of some hasty choices by their opponents and rallied for a 2 – 15 partial score. It was a two-possession affair, 91 – 85, with 1:18 to play.
The sequence that followed put a stop to Buducnost’s dreams and secured the win for the hosts. Nikola Radicevic capped his career-night in EuroLeague (12 points, 11 assists, 27 PIR) with a pair of free throws and then Xavi Rabaseda added another 2/2 from the line for Gran Canaria.
As coach Victor Garcia noted: “Congratulations to my players for the effort and the change in things we needed to improve, but we have to know how difficult the EuroLeague is. We were good because we were controlling the three-point shot in the first half. In the second one, we watched the real Buducnost, the way they have been playing in the last five games, scoring with great percentages. The only thing we need to improve is to focus all 40 minutes because we are building the team we want to be.”
Apart from Radicevic, Marcus Eriksson scored a team-high 15 points with 5/8 triples in 23 minutes for the winning squad and Ondrej Balvin added 15 points and seven rebounds. 40-year-old Albert Oliver had nine assists, a number noted by opposing coach Dzikic in the post-game presser.
Edwin Jackon scored 15 points and Alen Omic 12 (including his first ever 3-pointer in EuroLeague) for Buducnost.
However, for coach Dzikic the problem was defense: “It is incredible that we let a team with zero three-pointers from point guards get 20 assists combined from them. Oliver was 0-for-3 and Radicevic was without a three-point shot. That’s a little bit strange. My main question is: How come my players were executing things in the last six or seven minutes that we prepared – and it obviously worked – but we were not doing them the proper way before that? I was watching and thinking, ‘How come we did not do that before?’ We will have to talk about it”.