FCBARCELONA.CAT

07.03.2010 14:17

Regal Barça dominate at Pisuerga (59-73)

Sònia de Alba

Regal Barça have won their 22nd ACB match after dominating from the start at the Pisuerga. They stormed to a 7-21 lead and it was plain sailing from then on.

Xavi Pascual’s had clear ideas about what they had to do and the game was sentenced in the first period. Blancos de Rueda had not lost at home all season, but with Morris and Lorbek on such blistering form, that record was not going to survive today.

Lubos Barton made his ACB season debut when he came on for the last 21 seconds of the first half, and in total he played one minute on court.

Lethal 7-21

Two threes from Terence Morris plus two scores from Erazem Lorbek were enough to set up an early command for Regal Barça, while the Castilian side took four minutes to open their account.

Blancos de Rueda never recovered from that early setback.

The Catalans were soon 19 ahead, even though the play was often fairly well matched. Diego García was particularly strong, but last year’s MVP, Fede Van Lacke, was quiet and always well controlled by the visitors.

Valladolid’s partnership of Barnes and Batlle also failed to function, and Regal Barça had a comfortable lead of 24-37 by the break.

Awkward zone play

Morris started the second half strongly too, adding another three-pointer to what would eventually be a tally of 5/7.

But home coach Porfi Fisac wasn’t throwing in the towel quite yet, and with nothing to lose Blancos de Rueda switched to a zone defence and Isaac López scored at the end of the third period to narrow the gap to nine points (44-53).

There was a glimmer of hope for the Pisuerga faithful, but Regal Barça didn’t crumble. Morris and Lorbek re-established a strong lead, and Roger Grimau got the difference back to 20 points (51-70) with two minutes to go.

The win means Barça stay top of the league and ends a three-week period of road games with a perfect record, seven wins out of seven.