FCBARCELONA.CAT

19.04.2007 22:26

Close to the goal (85-80)

Winterthur FC Barcelona overcame a resilient DKV Joventut (85-80) in their 1000th ACB Liga game. With two games of the regular season remaining, Barça are closer to securing third spot.

Barça beat DKV Joventut in a tense match up. Despite Ivanovic’s team coming out strong in the first half, Aito Garcia Reneses’ men were able to find a way back into the game and even have chances of winning later on. The team from Badalona’s offensive rebound stats far outweighed those of Barça 9-19. However, patient, confident free throws from Navarro and a three pointer from Roki Leni Ukic assured victory in the 1000th ACB Liga match up.

High score rate

The first two periods were dominated by strong offensive play from the home team. Barça had a 73% success rate with the throw and by the end of the first quarter, had opened up a big advantage over the team from Badalona (27-12). In the second quarter it was much the same as the first. Ukic opened up the gap to 16 points within the first three minutes (21-15); a great move involving Roger Grimau and Fran Vasquez resulted in the blaugrana stretching even further away from the visitors (41-20). With a few minutes remaining, however, DKV Joventut finally woke up and began to get in the game.

Nerves

Barcelona began to slacken off after the break; which the visiting team took full advantage of. From this moment on, the gap became smaller and smaller. Despite Barça scoring 10 points, it was Bennet, Ricky Rubio and Charles Gaines who controlled the game the third quarter. Following some tense moments in the game, Rudy finally tied the scores at 73 in the final quarter of the game. Barça, however, kept their nerves and never let DKV run away with the game. Navarro was the professional and with 90 seconds left, coolly and calmly scored his free throws and shortly after, a crucial rebound take from Jordi Trias allowed Ukic to get a three pointer and finish off the game (85-80).

Palau support

The support during the match up was electric and the great performances from Navarro and Bennett served only to heighten the atmosphere inside. In the final stages of the match up, it was the public support which helped their team achieve victory number 21 in the ACB Liga.