FCBARCELONA.CAT

27.05.2007 20:59

Winterthur march through to semis (75-90)

Cristina Collado

Winterhur Barça booked their place in the ACB semi finals with a convincing win against Akasvayu Girona by 75-90, to win the tie 3-1. In the semis, Barca will meet Tau Vitoria, who beat Malaga 3-0.

The players gave an unstoppable display full of conviction, concentration, seriousness and confidence to brush aside the challenge from Girona. After Friday’s impressive win at the Palau, Barca were looking to wrap up the tie right from the start, avoid any last minute nerves this time round and also make the fifth game unnecessary.

Early concentration pays off

Barca took up where they had left off on Friday showing the same concentration and commitment, whilst Akasvayu began very slowly, missing three early chances and allowing the visitors to take an early 2-8 lead, before dragging themselves back to level the scores at 8-8. Navarro then tipped the balance in Barca’s favour again with three-pointer and by the 9th minute Ivanovic’s team had taken a 14-19 lead with a Ukic three pointer, before Marinovic’s final point made it 15-19 at the end of the first quarter.

Barca stretch their lead

Marconato kicked off the second quarter with two points and two more from Kakiouzis made it 15-23 on 12 minutes. Ex-Barca man ‘Bootsy’ Thornton led the Girona fight back with his team’s first three-pointer, but it was Winterthur who made the most of their three-point chances through Lakovic and Kakiouzis who helped stretch the lead to 20-31 on 15 minutes.

However, Akasvayu began to fight back with three consecutive scores and ex-Barca players from Víctor Sada and Gregor Fucka cut the difference to 4 points, 34-38, before Gianluca Basile made it 34-41 at the end of the quarter.

Second half domination

Winterthur Barça took complete control in the second half, with an excellent return of 25 from 32 points attempted – 78% success – that gave them a maximum lead of 16. points. Akasvayu weren’t prepared to roll over and die though and hit back through their maximum scorer McDonald(23points) and cut Barca’s lead back to 9 points. Ivanovic’s men’s concentration held though and in the end they comfortably kept their lead to march on into the semis.