The barca has dismissed the year 2022 with victory after defeating (94-99) the Red Star on matchday 16 of the Euroleague held this Thursday at the Aleksandar Nikolic Hall in Belgrade, thanks to a stellar Nikola Mirotic who forced the extension in the last breath.
The Spanish-Montenegrin, who had a bad first half, appeared at the end and with a three-pointer on the buzzer forced five more minutes that were visitors, to continue at the top (11-5). The culé team, which came from losing in Valencia, gave himself one last epic game in 2022in a Pionir to burst, as a test for January 2 in the League against Real Madrid.
Red Star, who changed course since Dusko Ivanovic’s arrival on his bench a month and a half ago, had him in his hand, but saw his best moment of the course stopped short. Those of Belgrade (8/9), without being able to count on Facundo Campazzo yetthey are tenth closely watching the tight playoffs.
Barça read all the offensive advantages very well to begin to dominate the match from the beginning. Thus, the team led by Sarunas Jasikevicius found in Tomas Satoransky his great ally from the line of three (4/4) to allow the culés to close the first quarter with an advantage on the scoreboard (17-28).
Even so, the locals threatened to reduce the distance in the second, with a Filip Petrusev’s great inside game (15p) that did not stop threatening the culé defense. With a 23-15 run at half-time, the Belgrade team joined forces in attack to nullify an apathetic Barcelona that went to the changing rooms with an advantage thanks to the Laprovittola’s final reaction (40-43).
Lack of concentration continued to be a problem for the visitors after the restart. Not very successful under the hoop, Jasikevicius’ men did not finish finding Mirotic. Thus, Dusko Ivanovic’s men put the Catalans on the ropes, with a Stellar Petrusev (24p), which allowed them to reach the last set ahead on the scoreboard (65-57).
Far from reacting, the culés once again left doubts in defense unable to stop a Nemanja Nedovic (16) key in the handle of the Belgrade team. However, the two triples from Abrines in the middle of the last quarter allowed the Catalans to close the gap and threaten the comeback.
Thus, Saras’ men were activated again from the line of three to tie the duel and reach a frantic end of the game. Although the Lithuanian coach’s board did not finish working in the first instance with Cory Higgins, he did come out so that Mirotic, with a month of competition after injury, increasingly toneda triple will be taken from the sleeve that sent the game to overtime.
The culés took advantage of the high to finish imposing themselves. The 3s by Higgins and Satoransky they ended up decanting a match that Barça knew how to resist until the end, in the fervor of the Serbian crowd, to take a victory of merit before going to Madrid.
