By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
One of the Basketball Champions League giants, two-time winners La Laguna Tenerife, started the new campaign in the competition with a big road win.
Last season’s finalists cruised past Karsiyaka in Izmir, winning comfortably 76-87 after a great second-half performance.
In the absence of Marcelinho Huertas, Fran Guerra with 20 points and newly signed Payton Willis with 19 points took over, while Bruno Fitipaldo also had a great game with 16 points and five assists.
On the other side, Errick McCollum had 16 points, James Webb followed with 15, while Kenan Sipahi scored 11 points for Ufuk Sarica’s side, which fought well in the first 20 minutes and even had the lead for the majority of the time but couldn’t cope with experienced Txus Vidorreta’s team in the second half.
The key moment of the game happened at the end of the third period when Tenerife made an 8-0 run to pull away and grab a 57-65 lead.
“Top result for us”
Tenerife head coach Txus Vidorreta shared his thoughts on the game.
“We prepared really well. Both teams started the match very well on offense, but I felt that our rhythm was better than theirs. Our defense was great, and our second half was unbelievable. In this difficult arena, keeping the lead and winning by 11 points is a top result for us,” Vidorreta said.
Postgame press conference