Towards Castellà and León

Básquet Girona will play tomorrow (5.00 p.m.) the fifth day of the league at the Zamorano track

| Friday, 22 March 2019

Basketball Girona will face a new duel to stay alive in the fight for the LEB Plata play-off places at the Aquimisa Laboratorios-Queso Zamoranode Castilla i León court. After last weekend’s victory in Fontajau, the team from Girona wants to achieve its first triumph as a visitor.

The team led by Saulo Hernández is in fourth place in the league with a record of 8-6 even though it has obtained the same results as Basketball Girona, 1 win (against Azuqueca) and 3 defeats (Alacant, Murcia and Villarrobledo). In addition, the Castilians achieved their only triumph away from the Pabellon Ángel Nieto – a fortín in the first phase, since they only lost two games there – so it gives them extra motivation to face the duel against the Girona.

As in all games, but especially this one, the defense can be the key to tipping the scales in favor of one team or the other. During the first phase, Zamora was one of the teams with the most offensive production in the entire category (5th out of 24 teams with 76.6 points in favor on average) and, therefore, a team that suffered when it did not score. In fact, in the first part of the league he lost both games as a home team when he did not reach 70 points (67 against Cantabria and 63 against Ávila) and, in this second phase, history repeats itself, already that neither Murcia (61) nor Alicante (66) managed to surpass this figure and ended up falling.

The Castilians count in their ranks with very physical and talented players such as the Hungarian international Ádam Somogyi (9.3 points and 3 assists), the French point guard Sangone Niang (13.3 points per game and 44% from the 3-point line) and the 213cm Nigerian center Jerry Okonkwo (7.8 points, 9.3 rebounds, 2 blocks and 15 rating average). In addition, they have been reinforced with Walter Junior from Real Canoe de LEB Or and Adedeji Ibitayo from Real Murcia.

*Quim Costa’s assessment:

“We face the match with all the enthusiasm in the world. After last week’s triumph, I hope that this will help us to have more confidence and security in attack and to be more solid in defense”.

“They are a very physical team, especially in the interior game. They use many defensive variants and, at times, combine players from similar positions in attack, therefore, we will have to be very careful and know how to react according to what they propose to us”.

Schedule and classification of day 5

PHOTO: Sergi Geronès