Victory of office

Basketball Girona beat Hestia Menorca by a close 62-64 thanks to a 10-20 run in the last period

| Thursday, 13 December 2018

A hard-earned victory for Basketball Girona in the Menorca – Maó pavilion. After a good away start, the Girona team had to sweat and grind a lot to recover from a very intense match in which the Menorcans sold their fourth consecutive win at the Girona team very dearly.

The first five minutes of the match was an exchange of baskets between both teams and it was very difficult to score easy points – Menorca managed to exhaust the Girona’s attacking possession on three occasions. However, Quim Costa’s team found solutions with Trias’ points and assists. In addition, a three-pointer from Bolton and another from Cuéllar led to a partial 0-10 that opened the first crack in the scoreboard (8-20 minute 9) although Andreu Matalí, with eight points, prevented the damage from getting worse .

In the second quarter, the Balearics came out even more intense in defense and this affected the circulation of the ball for Básquet Girona who, without ideas, lost up to six balls in this period. The local team was able to take advantage of this to get ahead on the scoreboard at half-time (32-29).

In the resumption, the Menorcans maintained the good inertia of the second period and, with two consecutive three-pointers from Xavi Hernández, managed to escape on the scoreboard (41 – 34 minute 24) and force Quim Costa to stop the match. However, the locals continued to take the game where they wanted and even managed to take a maximum advantage of ten points (50 – 40 minute 29). However, Girona did not give up, and Cizmic conveyed it with a snap of his fingers at the last second (52 – 44 minute 30).

In the last act, the craft of working under pressure with each passing minute, allowed Básquet Girona to tie the match four minutes from the end with a triple by Nil Angelats. With the confidence that this brought, the Girona team got a lot of offensive rebounds (6 in this quarter) which allowed them second options which they did not waste. In the last few exciting minutes where the Menorcan public was very much on top, a reliable Angelats from the staff – 7 of 9 shots converted – gave the Catalans the hard-fought victory.

The next match will be Sunday the 16th (1:00 p.m.) in Fontajau against Arcos Albacete Basket.

*Quim Costa’s assessment:

“We started very well but then ran out of gas. They managed to impose their rhythm and we had a bad time until the last quarter where we were luckier than them in some offensive actions and also with some recovered ball that we managed”.

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