Joventut won the Catalan derby against Manresa
Yesterday. the Palau Municipal d’Esports in Badalona hosted the game between Joventut and Manresa, two of the three teams from Catalunya in the ACB league this year ( after the Gasol brothers took charge of Girona, we might see a fourth team joining soon ).
Despite being a derby, only one team showed up to play basketball in the first 20 minutes and that was Joventut. Ribas and co. were leading by 25 points already at half time. Unfortunately for Pedro Martinez, his side didn’t look much better in the second half neither. Joventut continued the hot shooting, finishing with an amazing 61% ( 11/18 ) from the three point line and won in the end 105-61.
Brandon Paul was the leading scorer for Penya with 16 points, Spanish national team members Pau Ribas and Guillem Vives had 14 and 10 points respectively and veteran center Ante Tomic also added 10 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists.
However, the special mentions for this game go to the youngsters of Penya, Hungarian Zsombor Maronka and local Joel Parra. The talented 19-year old Maronka played a total of only 12 minutes in the first four games of the season without scoring any points. Yesterday however he played almost 19 minutes and had a great impact, scoring 12 points while his + / – was 32, the highest in the game. 21-year old Joel Parra scored 13 points and had the highest PIR in the game ( 21 ). Parra is already a regular player in coach Carles Duran’s rotation and is a player worth keeping an eye on.
On the other side, Manresa arrived at this game after three consecutive wins, but now they have to recover fast from this heavy defeat as they will have a crucial game in Jerusalem on Wednesday against Hapoel in the Basketball Champions League.
*photo: penya.com