Lenovo Tenerife played with fire this Thursday, but woke up on time and managed to qualify for their fourth semifinals of the Copa del Rey in the last five years after overcoming, in the match that premiered the edition played in Granada, a Joventut who , although he arrived as the top seed, paid dearly for the bad afternoon of his shooters (4/27 in triples) and was eliminated at the first change after not being able to complete his reaction in the last quarter (62-64).
When it seemed that everything was decided eleven minutes from the end, with a 17-point advantage for the canaries, the black-and-white woke up with a 25-6 run that gave them the only advantage of the afternoon one minute from the end, although it was not enough to seal a comeback in which no one believed after what was seen in the first three quarters of a lackluster tie that, at least, had emotion at the end.
From the initial jump, the people from Tenerife came out for the match, much more in tune and with their game plan perfectly studied. The 0-7 start seemed to be the continuation of their comfortable victory in Badalona last weekend against the same rival, with whom they had lost on the two previous occasions in which they had seen each other in the Copa del Rey.
Two three-pointers by Aaron Doornekamp and a third by Kyle Wiltjer led to the first escape of the afternoon against an unknown Joventut who started too cold, very unsuccessful and lacking in ideas, especially in attack. Only Ante Tomic hit the only three baskets of his team in the first seven minutes, in which the Catalan team missed the other ten shots available to them.
The perimeter continued to work for Txus Vidorreta’s team, well directed by Marcelinho Huertas, and two new triples scored by Tobias Borg and Dejan Todorovic closed a first act of clear dominance from Tenerife in which the numbers of the green and black justified the score: 5/ 14 in shots from two and 0/5 in shots from three points (10-21, min 10).
Borg opened the second quarter with the sixth canary triple, raising the lead to 14 points. Opposite, the Penya players continued to accumulate errors and lose balls, unable to overcome the spider web woven by a Lenovo that began to lower its offensive production. Joel Parra, from the corner, ended the scoring drought of a team that took four minutes to release their marker in that period.
The minutes passed and nothing changed in the Palacio de Deportes de Granada. Carles Durán was desperate on the wing when he saw that his men were far from the level displayed this season, they only had 15 points in 17 minutes and lost by 16 points (15-31).
A timeout requested by the Catalan coach had its effect and a partial 6-0 fixed the situation somewhat, but at the break the scoreboard left no doubt about what was seen in the first half, in which Lenovo’s outside success, with seven triples converted, contrasted with the very poor rival statistics from the goal (1/10) and seemed to clear the way for the Claretian team to the semifinals (23-36, min 20).
After the restart, the initial exchange of blows favored the interests of the island team, which without having its best afternoon, played with the peace of mind that the loot of points obtained in the first twenty minutes gave them. Joventut tried but without any clear reference in attack, which prevented them from getting closer to the scoreboard and breaking the psychological barrier of ten points.
At least, his second three-pointer of the afternoon, scored by Willis in the last seconds of the third quarter, and Tomic’s buzzer-beating basket allowed the team from Badalona to take said partial, although they had only cut one point and had much to improve if they wanted come back in the final ten minutes (39-51, min 30).
The Croatian center, the best in Penya in scoring (15) and rebounds (9), put his team on his back. Joventut, with five consecutive points from the Slovakian Vladimír Brodziansky, began to believe in the comeback and completed an 18-3 run that put them down just two at 5.27 from the end (52-54). The Lenovo was very touched and could not find solutions to its offensive collapse.
The errors in each other presaged an equal ending. The canaries struggled to stay on top of the scoreboard until 1.04 from the end Joel Parra, with three free throws, gave his team the only advantage of the afternoon at the best moment (59-57). Then Sasu Salin appeared, unprecedented until then, to score a triple when his team needed it most. Shermadini, with two free throws and a couple of fundamental rebounds, completed the Claretian reaction and sealed the ticket to the semifinals.
Data sheet:
62 – Joventut Badalona (10+13+16+23): Vives (-), Paul (2), Parra (14), Willis (9), Tomic (15) -initial team-, Ribas (6), Bassas (-), Ventura (-), Birgander (2) and Brodziansky (eleven)
64 – Lenovo Tenerife (21+15+15+13): Huertas (8), Salin (4), Todorovic (6), Doornekamp (8) and Shermadini (12) -starting quintet-, Sastre (4), Wiltjer (8), Guerra (4), Sulejmanovic (2), Borg (8) and Rodriguez (-)
Referees: Emilio Pérez Pizarro, Fernando Calatrava and Martín Caballero. They eliminated Brandon Paul from Joventut for fouls.
Incidents: First round of the quarterfinals of the Granada Basketball King’s Cup, played at the Palacio Municipal de Deportes before 5,421 spectators.
