Barça 112-69 Lenovo Tenerife: Flying start to semis

Barça beat Lenovo Tenerife by a massive 112-69 to take the first of the best-of-three semi-final series. The first half was tight but the 40-18 third period tipped the balance more than sufficiently the way of the Catalans.

From just one three in the first half, they converted 16 in the second and now go to the canary Islands for Wednesday’s game two at 9.15pm CEST in a buoyant mood.

With nine failed 3-point attempts, Barça couldn’t get to grips with the early play, and after 18 minutes no team had broken away and the sides were locked at 34-34. But especially inspired by Kuric and control of rebounds, a late 9-2 spree went they suddenly had a nice lead to take into the interval.

The next ten minutes were simply perfect. Barça were 7/8 in threes and went into the final period with an immense 30-point lead, the 40 points in the quarter amounting to the highest tally ever recorded in a playoff game.

Tenerife knew this game was lost, and the final period was just about keeping things going. Amazingly, the game ended with nine different Barça players scoring 3-pointers, and a place in the Liga Endesa final is one step closer.

MATCH STATS

Barça: Davies (8), Abrines (13), Higgins (2), Mirotic (21), Calathes (8), Westermann (2), Hanga (5), Bolmaro (17), Smits (10), Gasol (11), Oriola (2) i Kuric (13). 

Tenerife: Fitipaldo (5), Jenkins (6), Shermadini (8), Cavanaugh (6), Doornekamp (7), Yusta (-), Huertas (12), Salin (6), Rodríguez (5), Sulejmanovic (-), Guerra (14). 

Periods: 18-18, 25-18 (43-36), 40-18 (83-54), 29-15 (112-69)