Barça Lassa lost at home to defending Euroleague champions CSKA Moscow on Friday in a game where they were playing catch-up ever since a crushing 4-29 reverse in the first period. The Catalans may have made amends by winning the second and third periods, but that was nowhere near enough to reduce the deficit.
It has taken them four minutes to get their first points on the board, by which time CSKA already had eleven. And with Frenchman De Colo on such stunning form, the gap was only going to get wider.
Tomic led the reaction in the second period, but although no longer outplayed, Barça Lassa needed more than that to cut down such a wide margin, and a late surge from the Russians meant the first half ended 24-48.
Errant 3-point shooting coupled with the quality of the visiting side made any chance of a comeback look increasingly more unlikely. Barça Lassa did top the third period 23-18, and the frustrated home fans could take some solace from Vezenkov’s scoring (he ended with 14) and some tough battling on the paint from Diagne, but the damage had already been done in the first period.
The third consecutive home defeat in a row leaves Barça Lassa 9-15 in the regular season and four wins adrift of one of the eight playoff berths.
