Joventut Badalona with one foot in the semifinals
Joventut Badalona defeated Lenovo Tenerife in front of more than 8000 fans in the Palau Municipal D’Esports de Badalona and took a 1-0 lead in the ACB League quarterfinals, which is played in the best of 3 format.
Tenerife scored the first two points in the game, but after that, the home team from Catalunya took the lead and never looked back. Joventut won the first quarter 27-7 and at halftime was already leading by an incredible 33 point margin (54-21). As the 4th place was playing against the 5th, this was supposed to be the most balanced quarterfinal, but in the second half, Joventut continued to dominate its opponent, leading by 39 in the third quarter. Tenerife managed to win the last quarter by 2 points, but it was too little, too late. The final score was 100-68.
The team from Canary Island looked bad for a team that just won the Basketball Champions League less than three weeks ago. They were absolutely dominated by the hosts in any statistical chapter. On the other hand, Joventut (which also had a fantastic European season, but was eliminated by Ulm in the quarterfinals of the EuroCup) played another memorable game and showed once again that they are a top team in Spain.
Even playing without Brandon Paul, Badalona had many players with big contributions. Seven players scored in double digits and another two added 8 and 9 points respectively. Joel Parra finished with the highest PIR (21) and was the top scorer together with Busquets. However, it really was a team win and all players who were sent to the court by Carles Duran did their job well. For Tenerife, Brazilian veteran point guard Marcelinho Huertas was again their best player. The BCL MVP scored 14 points and dished 4 assists, but he got too little help from his teammates.
Imre Halasz
Image credit: Joventut Badalona
