FCBARCELONA.CAT

20.05.2007 14:18

Akasvayu draw level (85-70)

Sònia de Alba /Cristina Collado

Winterthur Barça were defeated in Girona by Akasavyu on Sunday leaving their quarter final series tied at 1-1.

Barca went down by 15 points in a game marked by a lack of concentration from the players that gave Girona the opportunity to exploit Ivanovic’s team’s poor shooting and open up a fair gap in points.

Fernando San Emeterio was again the leader for the home team and started off the scoring, before Barca’s Slovene star replied with a three pointer. San Emeterio and McDonald hit back for Girona, but Ivanovic called a time out and the team hit back with a 2-8 partial. That was that for the visitors though, who after the seventh minute were never again to take the lead during the game.

Akasvayu stretch into lead

Dainius Salenga rounded off the first quarter with a three point for the home team who went in 22-18 up and despite some spectacular stuff from Navarro and Fran Vázquez that took the scores to just 29-28, Girona’s Germán Gabriel coming off the bench and McDonald and Salenga took the home team to a strong 43-34 lead at the end of the second quarter.

Kasun makes his debut

Dusko Ivanovic brought Mario Kasun on after the break for his debut in the series and though he quickly made his mark with four points, he also picked up three personal fouls in just three minutes. Unfortunately, after the last one his sarcastic applause for the ref won him his fourth and elimination. Akasvayu managed to open up a gap of 15 points before Lakovic cut it back to 12. Then the officials punished Pesic with foul for entering the court and the Girona fans upped the tension as Barca managed to cut the difference to just 8 points (55-47), which stayed stable till the end of the third quarter(61-53)

Girona open up big gap

The home team opened up the throttle in the final quarter and Barça just had no reply as McDonald, Salenga and Gabriel opened up a 17 point gap, which the Catalan Victor Sada, who put in a tireless performance, then increased to 20 (77-57) Winterthur’s maximum scorer with 18 points Kakiouzis applied some pressure in the last five minutes and together with scores from Roger Grimau –two free throws- a two-pointer from Vázquez and a block and counter from Basile, Winterthur reduced the final score to 85-70.

Quatre dies per preparar el tercer partit

The third game of the series will be at the Palau Blaugrana on Thursday evening (20.45) and Winterthur should have time enough to reflect on their errors in this match and look to regain the series lead. The fourth game is due for Sunday 27th in Girona at18.00.