By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
With new coach Pedro Martinez on the bench, Gran Canaria got the easy 84-64 win over Darussafaka. While both teams are out of the playoff race, the hosts defended their home court thanks to a solid team effort. Gran Canaria improved to 7-19 while Darussafaka stayed at 3-23.
Marcus Eriksson with 16 points in 17 minutes of action was the first among equals while Nikola Radicevic followed with ten points. All the players of Gran Canaria scored and all were used by coach Martinez.
On the other side, Kartal Ozmizrak scored 11 points as the Turks are trying at this point of the season to develop their local talent. He was the top scorer, followed by Toney Douglas and Standon Kidd who scored 10 points each.
Coach Martinez was content with the effort: “Good game for us, we played with good energy and all of the players had good moments throughout the game. Good rhythm, defense, some problems with turnovers but in general I think we made a good game.”
Darussafaka held on and was ahead after the first quarter (18-15) but the hosts quickly turned the tables going on the halftime rest with 37-30 advantage. Gran Canaria didn’t stop there and kept increasing the lead to as much as 27 points (74-47) leaving nothing to chance.
“Congratulations to Gran Canaria team. After their coaching change, we new they will have a very positive reaction and they did that tonight. When we brought our players off the bench, we had too many turnovers and our offensive rhythm was completely broken. With this, we give a lot of transition points to Gran Canaria”, coach Selcuk Ernak explained.
Photo credit: Turkish Airlines EuroLeague