Barça 68-63 Casademont Zaragoza: Demanding win

A win for Barça against Casademont Zaragoza (68-63) in the final game of 2022 in front of the fans in the Palau. A clash that the Catalans controlled throughout after the visitors took an early 0-7 lead. Vesely and Jokubaitis both top scored for Barça with 12 points.

Visitors start well

Casademont Zaragoza surprised Saras' men by going 0-7 up, but consecutive three-pointers by Mirotic, Laprovittola and Satoransky levelled things up (9-9, min 5). Despite this, the home side were finding it hard to get into the game and the first quarter ended 14-17.

Barça started the second quarter better, opening up a 31-24 lead. However, Jessup stood up for Casademont Zaragoza in attack, helping the side to be only two points down at the break, 38-36 half-time score.

Lead extended

The game remained fairly tight during the third quarter until Barça started to pull away, scoring 12 points with only one in reply, Jokubaitis and Vesely leading the attack to make it 55-44 after 28 minutes.

The final 10 minutes saw a push by Casademont Zaragoza, who came back to within five points. However, Barça scored five points to extend the lead once again and remain in control of the game, running out eventual 68-63 winners.

Charity initiative "The true cracks"

During the pre-game warm up, Cory Higgins and Nikola Mirotic entered the court with some posters stating they would swap jerseys with children after the game. This is one of the initiatives during the festive period through which FC Barcelona wants to raise awareness about one of the FC Barcelona Foundation's pioneering programmes. The "Bienestar Emocional Pediátrico" (Child Emotional Well-being) programme aims to help ill children feel more positive.

This also shows the Club's social commitment, with the Foundation being the best possible expression of that desire: to encourage well-being among the more vulnerable children and adolescents through the transformative power of sport and the magic of Barça.

Game stats:

Barça, 68
Casademont Zaragoza, 63

Barça: Satoransky (3), Laprovittola (9), Paulí (-), Mirotic (7) and Nnaji (7) – starting five -, Da Silva (7), Vesely (12), Abrines (2), Jokubaitis (12), Kalinic (-), Tobey (4) and Kuric (5).

Casademont Zaragoza: Jovic (4), Ponitka (1), Jessup (21), Mekowulu (6) y Hlinason (6) – starting five -, Wright (1), Yusta (7), Sant-Roos (9), Mara (6) and Simanic (2).

Quarters: 14-17 / 24-19 / 20-10 / 10-17 

Referees: Jordi Aliaga, Martín Caballero and Iyán González.