Barça 72-84 Baskonia: First league loss at the Palau

The Barça Lassa basketball team have lost at the Palau for the first time this ACB season. Baskonia got it especially right in the second half of this originally postponed fixture due to the Euroleague playoffs, scoring 52 points and eventually won the game by 12.

With Tomic out injured, the Catalans had started well, and Hanga was particularly impressive with 19 points. They led 34-27 a minute before the break, and were dominating the rebounds (19-14), but Baskonia changed all that after the interval and as they started clinching the rebounds and finding more shooting accuracy, they were soon marching onwards to eventually turn around a -9 points differential from this season’s earlier meeting at the Buesa Arena.

An 11-23 streak in the third period was what really killed it for Barça, and try as they could, they could find nothing Baskonia from maintaining a double-figure lead for the remainder of the match.

With Barça top of the table on 23-6 and the Basques third with 22-7, that might prove decisive in deciding the playoff match-ups. As things stand, however, Barça still top the pile, and will have the chance to make amends later this weekend when they visit Gran Canària (Sunday at 7.30pm CET).

MATCH STATS

Barça: Seraphin (7), Pangos (8), Singleton (3), Hanga (19), Kuric (7), Smits (3), Heurtel (9), Claver (2), Oriola (13), Ribas (1).

Baskonia: Vildoza (2), Voigtmann (9), Poirier (13), Garino (1), Shields (18), Huertas (8), Diop (-), Hilliard (15), Shengelia (18), Sedekerskis (-).

Periods: 18-17, 34-32 (16-15), 51-57 (17-25), 72-84 (21-27).

Referees: Carlos Peruga, Juan de Dios Oyón, Alfonso Olivares.

* 50 seasons after he was appointed head coach, the club honoured Xabier Añua, Barça manager from 1968 to 1972, during the interval