The Lenovo Tenerife from Txus Vidorreta won this Sunday in Bilbao, the city of his coach, his second Champions League, an incontestable victory against BAXI Manresa by 87-98 led by the Brazilian point guard Marcelinho Huertas with a whopping 14 assists.
Marcelino, MVP of the final, was the one who greased the Canarian victory, which with this victory is the winner of the first and the last Basketball Champions League, but all his teammates collaborated with him in an impressive afternoon of success above 65 percent in shots from the field, 73 in T2 and almost 55 in triples.
The point guard from São Paulo also finished with 13 points and a PIR of 24, well helped by sasu salin (18 and 20), with a spectacular start, Aaron Doornekamp (11, 7 rebounds and 19), the only player to repeat the title with the team from Tenerife, kyle wiltjer (17) and Giorgi Shermadini (14).
At Manresa he put everything he could on the pitch, even a little blood, Chima Monek (24, 8 and 27), the MVP of the competition, although without much help from his teammates. Among those who appeared on occasion Joe Thomasson (15 and 15), Dani Pérez (12), Silvayn Francisco (12) and Luke Maye (10).
But to those of Peter Martinezoutstanding throughout the tournament, lacked today to follow the scoring rhythm of an insurmountable Tenerife.
With the triumph of the Canarian team, the basketball Spanish adds four of the six disputed BCL and the last three. The previous two had been won by San Pablo Burgos inherits.
The duel started with a tremendous atmosphere in the stands and a ‘duel to the death’ at OK Corral between Salin and Moneke, settled in favor of the one in red, who scored the first 12 points in four three-point plays, two triples and two 2+1s.
The one in black stayed at 10, but his team was ahead for almost the entire first quarter with the projection of both teams to more than 100 points (25-27).
Enormous scoring by both teams, which did not stop until the break (50-49) despite the defensive aggressiveness in both halves of the field.
Sima and Dani Pérez took over from Moneke in which Thomasson also appeared to stop a first attempt to get away chicharrera at the beginning of the second quarter (25-32).
In Tenerife they also began to have the leading role that Huertas and Shermadini are accustomed to, already productive (19 points between them and Marcelinho 6 assists) in a frenetic first half with a high level of offensive play.
Those from Vidorreta returned from the locker room as they went to them, with a tremendous success in the shots which allowed them to once again threaten to get away on the scoreboard when they went ahead by ten points midway through the third quarter (56-66) and by 11 two minutes later (58-69).
Things were complicated for Manresa because, in addition, Moneke was injured in the face after receiving a Foul sanctioned as unsportsmanlike of Shermanini.
And things got even worse for Pedro Martínez’s men, who ended up 15 down the third quarter (67-82) with Doornekamp and Wiltjer joining the Canarian scoring festival.
It was the beginning of the end for Manresa, despite the fact that Moneke returned to the pitch, and the beginning of the party for the three hundred Canarian supporters. Everyone was excited when the 5,000 from Manresa, after having thanked their team for bringing them to Bilbao, sang “Tenerife, Tenerife, Tenerife” thundering the pavilion.
Fair deference of the ‘red tide’ to the undisputed 87-98 end which reduced the 18-point advantage that the Canarian team reached in the last quarter (71-89).
Data sheet
87 – BAXI Manresa (25+25+17+20): Dani Pérez (12), Francisco (12), Valtonen (2), Moneke (24) and Bako (2) -initial five-; Thomasson (15), Vaulet (6), Maye (10), Sima (4), Rafa Martínez, Steinbergs and Naspler.
98 – Lenovo Tenerife (27+22+33+16); Marcelinho Huertas (13), Salin (18), Sastre (9), Doornekamp (11) and Guerra (4) -initial five-; Fitipaldo (7), Wiltjer (17), Shermadini (14), Dejan Todorovic, Sulejmanovic (5), Sean Smith and Sergio Rodríguez.
partial: 25-27, 50-49 (rest); 67-82 and 87-98 (final).
referees: Manuel Mazzoni (ITA), Yohan Rosso (FRA) and Wojciech Liszla (POL). Without eliminated.
Incidents: Final of the 2021-2022 Champions League, played at the Bilbao Arena in Miribilla before 8,107 spectators, according to official data. Of them, about 5,000 followers of Manresa and only about 300 of Tenerife.