Full of club victories

The senior added the fourth consecutive victory against Barça B after an exercise in defensive maturity

| Sunday, 06 October 2019

Básquet Girona has added its fourth consecutive victory on the court of Barça B, another of the unbeaten teams in the group. The men led by Àlex Formento have been able to evolve the match with firmness and conviction, stopping one of the most offensive teams in the competition (65). Although the first quarter has been a scoring recital, the defenses have been imposing and the senior has asserted his status as the best defender in the category.

Antonio Hester gave Girona the first advantage with a quick basket. The senior has imposed an agile game rhythm with great success in attack -16 points in the first four minutes-. The good work in defense has made it possible to establish the first maximum advantage of eight points (5-13). The opponent responded by putting up solid defenses inside, running on the counterattack and winning the inside duel (Sergi Martínez, 9 points in the first ten minutes). this  taking the first half (28-23).

A 2-8 run, commanding the paint, put the senior ahead again (30-31, 14′). The players trained by Àlex Formento have managed to stop the Blaugrana scoring inspiration of the first period with an exercise in maturity both in attack and defense – 12 points against the opposition in the second quarter. With three minutes left before the break, two consecutive triples by the senior (Hester and Max Esteban) broke the atmosphere of equality during the second quarter (36-40, 17′), reaching the break ahead of the score (40- 44).

In the first minutes of the restart, both teams attacked more regularly in static situations and the losses did not generate as many counter-attacking situations. Faced with a Barça denied in the three-pointer (3 of 16 attempts), the Girona team became strong in the interior game on both sides of the court, adding a new maximum of nine points (44-53, 26′).   Barça closed the gap with a 7-2 partial lead, but a triple by Esteban stopped the Blaugrana’s intentions (51-58).

Víctor Moreno started the scoring in the last quarter with a three-pointer that started a 7-0 run that generated a new advantage of +14 (51-65, 32′). The defense and the miscue have starred for most of the last quarter (9 points in six minutes between the two teams). In the last two minutes, the Blaugrana side made an attempt to put fear into the bodies of the Girona team (63-69, 39′) but they were able to defend their advantage (65-73).

The victory was celebrated with the majority of fans who accompanied the senior on the visit to the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper. With the senior team, all the club teams have won their competitive event of the weekend.

* Statements by Àlex Formento:

“First of all, congratulations to Barça for the young talents they have. Secondly, to thank all the fans who have come to support us because without them it would not have been possible”

“The start of the match was not what we wanted. We don’t base our game on the score, but we are mainly interested in not conceding. From the second quarter on, we did manage to find ourselves on the court, manage to attack from the defense. We came from a physically demanding week and it was difficult for us to close the game because no game is easy in this category”

“It is clear that everything must be ‘consequence of’ but I am seeing many games in the league that do not show what has been seen on the floor. Obviously if you don’t do things right you don’t win but sometimes you do things right and you lose. In our case, we believe that we are doing things well and we are reaping the fruits of the victory with the point of luck and success that maybe we did not have last year”

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Photo: Sergi Geronès