It’s wonderful to watch them play. Fast pace, plenty of points, depth on the bench and an intensity that few teams can match. In Girona today, for the final of the ACB Catalan League, FC Barcelona showed that this could be an amazing season. They beat Fiatc Joventut 85-73 to win the first title of the campaign, and although it’s still early days to say for sure, this looks like one of the strongest Barça squads for years.
Vives scores and Navarro is back
In front of an enthralled Fontajau, young Guillem Vives opened the scoring. The 20-year-old Joventut player got all of his team’s points as they flew into a 2-14 lead. But Barça soon responded, with Lampe largely to thank for the first period ending 18-20. And there was also the delight of seeing the captain, Juan Carlos Navarro, finally returning from injury
Abrines unstoppable
The star of the second period was Álex Abrines. The Mallorcan guard grabbed 14 points in seven minutes to finally put Barça ahead (34-26). That lead was then stretched (44-35) and the period ended with eight points between the teams (52-40). Marko Todorovic (9) was also on fine form, while Lampe also started making his presence felt. With 34 points in the period, Barça were already starting to play for the crowd.
Game over
Joventut were frankly poor after the restart, scoring just four points in the third period, which ended 15-4, for an overall score of 67-44. Nachbar, with 8 points including two threes, was the man of the period for a Barça team that was in no mood for taking prisoners.
The last ten minutes even saw Barça B’s Oriol Paulí getting a run-out. Joventut did manage to reduce the deficit, but the game was as good as over by that time. In the end, FC Barcelona cruised to 85-73 victory, and could celebrate their first silverware of the season.
