FCBARCELONA.CAT

17.02.2008 14:35

Second victory under new management (69-62)

Sònia de Alba

AXA Barça have beaten Grupo Capitol Valladolid in a hard-fought game. Alex Acker was the best player on both offence and defence. The azulgranas have achieved their second win in a row with Xavier Pascual as coach.

The second game in the new Barça era had a number of innovations such as a zone defence and a place in the starting line-up for Albert Moncasi. The young pivot got his first touch from the jump ball but was unable to prevail over his Valladolid counterpart.

Valladolid started well. Joseph Gomis’s speed and Rodrigo San Miguel’s points gave Grupo Capitol a 7 point lead (6-13, 8-15 and 10-17). Then with Alex Acker on court to replace Basile alongside Mario Kasun, the first quarter ended 14-17.

Zone defence

The start of the second quarter saw Barça take the lead. For the first time in the match the azulgranas opened up a gap of 6 points. Kasun got his ninth point with a basket followed by a free throw (25-19).

But Valladolid came right back. Nacho Rodríguez, Boddicker, Eley and Pakamanis between them made it 27-28, helped by numerous errors by Barça.

The solution was to set up a zone defence. In the two minutes and twenty seconds before half-time two Valladolid attacks were blocked with turnovers and four points for Barça.

The two teams headed off for the break with the score at 33 apiece, after Pakamanis managed to overcome the zone defence with a three pointer.

Three pointer by Pepe Sánchez

The first exchanges of the third quarter led to AXA Barça taking a 9 point lead as Xavi Pascual’s men came out all guns blazing. Fran Vázquez missed two easy slam dunks, but Basile, Acker and Kasun were on hand to give the azulgranas the upper hand.

Still Barça needed to play more carefully and take their time. However, the psychological blow was delivered by Pepe Sánchez as right on the buzzer for the end of the third quarter he fired in a three pointer from almost the middle of the court to make it 52-51.

Making things count

With the adrenaline racing the game upped its tempo in the last 10 minutes. Acker reached 20 points with a three pointer (55-51). Trias and Kasun made all the inside plays they wanted to and Pepe Sánchez penetrated the Valladolid defence time and again. The guard also provided a total of 10 assists with his dribbling.

Those 10 points came in handy as Valladolid just wouldn’t give up.

Nevertheless, Acker was there to kill off the game. The American finished with 24 points and 9 rebounds and a rating of 29. Mario Kasun was right up there with him as his 17 points got him a rating of 26, which is his best ACB score.

AXA Barça made no errors with free throws, scoring 9 out of 9. The last time the azulgranas finished a game with no missed free throws was on 15 April 2007 against Alta Gestión Fuenlabrada (8/8).

Fifteen years of Gossos

Catalan rock group Gossos were at the ACB round 21 game to give an on-court rendition of the Barça anthem. They also performed two more songs at half-time. Gossos are celebrating their 15th anniversary this year and invited the Barça fans to come along to the Auditorium next 15 March to mark the occasion.