FC Barcelona were unable to bring home a victory from their visit to Germany on Thursday, as the Catalans lost out by a narrow margin (74-70) to Brose Baskets in the Euroleague Top16.
Barça started the match brightly, taking a seven-point lead early on, and ended the first quarter 17-13 ahead. Ribas’ burst out of the traps in the second period with a treble to give Xavi Pascual’s side a six-point advantage (22-16) but the local boy’s effort only seemed to galvanise the German’s as they responded with eight unanswered points of their own to take the lead for the first time, which evidently left Barça rattled.
Nevertheless, Barça did not lose sight of their opponents, going into the half-way mark down by just three points. The same margin would carry through right until the final and decisive quarter.
Barça’s inconsistency were it really mattered proved costly as Brose took full advantage of the visitors’ missed chances to race away to a ten-point lead which proved impossible to come back from at such a late stage. A late fight back saw Barça reduce the score to just four points which albeit makes things interesting for the points average tally.
