FC Barcelona Lassa fell off towards the end of today’s game with Estudiantes, and as a result have suffered their first defeat of the league season. Heurtel and Oriola were outstanding but it wasn’t enough to stop a solid home defence from snatching victory in the final straight.
Neither side produced their A-game in the first period, with failed 3-pointers especially prevalent, but the Madrid based side took early command on the scoreboard (16-11).
Estudiantes were an even more miserable 1/12 in triples in the second period and a 0-10 streak from Barça helped establish a 9-point lead at the break (36-45).
But Barça slipped after the break, Landesberg scoring 15 in the third period and the game tying on 49-49 before Barça picked up a few handy points towards the end (55-61).
The home side battled hard to keep in contention, and finally regained the lead when a Cvetkovic three was the peak of an 18-4 streak that suddenly saw a previously struggling Estudiantes eventually win the game by ten (80-70).
Barça will wonder how they managed to clutch defeat from the jaws of victory, but need to pick up the pieces going into a period of three games in just six days: Zalgiris (Tuesday), AX Milan (Thursday) and Múrcia (Sunday).
