By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Well…. all things come to an end. That’s what they say don’t they? Laboral Kutxa decided Valencia won enough consecutive games in Liga Endesa and had the right basketball tools in order to support this argument. After a fiery start with Darius Adams’ multiple 3s countering countered Justin Hamilton’s almost insane outut (he had 16 of his team’s first 17 games), Valencia soon took over, having a small yet steady lead from the 15th minute of the game until the mid of the third quarter. It was then, when Laboral took over and with the help of Fabien Causeur achieved a 13-2 partial score. Pedro Martinez’s players tried to fight back but their reaction came too late and proved to be futile. Yet they remain all alone at the peak of the standings, with Baskonia being third.
Now Barcelona (17-2) is closer to Valencia (18-1) which is still on top of the standings, since Perperoglou’s swift action made all the difference near the end of the match against Andorra and allowed his team to catch a big breath after a disappointing performance in Euroleague. Right behind the Catalans, is Real Madrid at the third place (15-4) after snapped all over Estudiantes, while Gran Canaria (12-7) rallied their forces in the fourth quarter to bend the will of Manresa (7-12) and waits its turn to make a claim for the fifth spot of the standings, behing Laboral Kutxa (15-4).
A much expected victory arrived after 6 negative results for Sevilla (6-13), since Scott Bambforth scored 12 points in the last 3 minutes of the match versus nifty, so far, Fuenlabrada (10-9), while in Bilbao (10-9), the Basques welcomed their ex coach Fotis Katsikaris beautifully, but then proceeded to play a fantastic offensive game against Murcia (8-11), thus grabbing the win that keeps them in the playoff zone.
Liga Endesa 2015-2016/Day 19
Bilbao (Giorgos Bogris 14 p. 8 r.) – Murcia: 90 – 79
Barcelona (Stratos Perperoglou 17 p.) – Andorra: 84 – 79
Sevilla (Scott Bamforth 19 p.) – Fuenlabrada: 85 – 78
Zaragoza (22 p. 6 a.) – Joventut Badalona: 94 – 83
Tenerife – Unicaja Malaga (Alberto Diaz 12 p.): 57 – 64
San Sebastian (Txemi Urtasun 17 p. 4 a.) – Obradoiro: 82 – 75
Laboral Kutxa (Giannis Bourousis 13 p. 11 r.)- Valencia: 79 – 73
Manresa – Gran Canaria (DJ Seeley 21 p. 5 r.): 70 – 78
Real Madrid (Jaycee Carroll 21 p.) – Estudiantes: 97 – 79