It is never easy to win in the Balkans, the cradle of European basketball, home to great legends. The task becomes a feat if the game is also played at the Stark Arena, with 20,000 spectators screaming, and against a launched Belgrade Partizan that is trained by an old fox, master among masters, like Zeljko Obradovic.
But Barça, with stellar Laprovittola (25 points) and Mirotic (19 points), took all these ingredients and cooked up a crucial victory (80-89) in Serbian hell on their way to securing the field factor in the Euroleague quarterfinals. . Jasikevicius’s pupils went from being disappointed on the same track in the semifinals of the previous edition, when they lost to Real Madrid, to celebrating a victory forged in the third quarter.
The Catalans relied from the start on an inspired Laprovittola, author of 11 points in the first quarter (21-25). The offensive fluidity ended for the visitors in a second quarter in which losses followed one another and Exum punished his former teammates from the triple and in the zone. With eight points down, Barça reacted before the break (45-44) thanks again to Laprovittola and a Higgins who corrected several previous mistakes.
After the break, the defense of a Barça improved, which led the score with five straight points from Abrines. The blaugrana, with Mirotic at the helm for the first time, increased the lead to 12 points against a Partizan lost in referee protests that did not result in technical fouls.
The locals stopped the bleeding before the final stake thanks to Punter and Exum (58-66). The Australian, who became the axis of all the Serbs’ plays in the last ten minutes, pressed the electronics, but Mirotic and Laprovittola responded to the affront, especially successful in the hottest moments. A triple by Satoransky ended up knocking out the Balkans (71-81) and Barça was able to taste the last two minutes in hell.
Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrado (21 24 13 22): Nunnally (5), Madar (6), Punter (16), LeDay (10) y Lessort (5) -equipo inicial- Vukcevic (-), Avramovic (6), Smailagic (6), Papapetrou (2), Exum (24), Trifunovic (-) y Andjusic (-).
Barça (25 19 22 23): Satoransky (10), Laprovittola (25), Abrines (5), Mirotic (19), Vesely (14) -starting team- Da Silva (-), Sanli (2), Kalinic (4 ), Higgins (5), Tobey (3), Kuric (-) and Jokubaitis (2).
Referees: Borys Ryzhyk (UCR), Anne Panther (ALE) and Seffi Shemmesh (ISR). They eliminated the local Avramovic with five fouls (min.40).
Incidents: game of the thirty-first day of the basketball Euroleague played at the Stark Arena in Belgrade (Serbia).
