The Movistar
Students on Friday wasted his last chance to save himself on the merits of relegation and, after his defeat at home against a San Pablo Burgos who certified his sixth place (82-88), no longer depends on himself and will only avoid disaster if the RETAbet Bilbao Basket lose Sunday with him Joventut, which would condemn the Basque team and save the schoolboys.
Although the Madrilenians fought it to the end, they ended up adding their ninth consecutive setback in the League
Endesa against an opponent who needed a win to seal their goal of reaching the playoffs sixth, a success was achieved in large part by the display of Thad
McFadden, leading scorer with 24 points
Everything turned against him Students in this season finale, which he arrived with with several key parts injured, Victor’s last-minute covid casualties Arteaga and Nemanja Djurisic and, to add insult to injury, the escape of former NBA star JJ Barea, who decided to return to port
rich instead of staying to try to save the team that brought him to Spain.
With these conditions, the task was complicated before a team on a roll, which has just won its second Champions League, it was gambled to maintain its privileged position in the League
Endesa and was more intoned from the initial jump.
Because the precipitation weighed down the locals, who accumulated losses in attack and were not able to adjust their defense, which allowed easy baskets for Joan’s players Peñarroya, which were fired from the beginning until 6-14 and forced Jota Cuspinera to stop the game after five minutes of terrible feelings in his team, in which only the Dominican Ángel slim it was the size.
But the measure did not work and the triples of McFadden and the dots near Dejan’s hoop Kravic they aggravated the student crisis. Each attack by the Burgos team became a basket, and with very high percentages from all positions (80% in shots of two and in triples), they closed the first ten minutes almost perfect in which they were far superior to their opponent (18- 30, min 10)
In the resumption, the panorama changed radically. The Saint
Paul he stopped his offensive production in his tracks, with only six points in as many minutes, and allowed the approach of a Estudiantes who did not miss the opportunity, put one more march in defense and woke up in attack, where he seemed another.
Aleksa’s success Avramovic and two consecutive triples by Zeljko Sakic and Alexander Cvetkovic They left the difference in a single point after a partial of 21-10, and only the success of McFadden -author of 19 points in the first half- avoided greater evils and allowed his team to take a breath at halftime (43-47. min 20).
A triple of Brown and an under-hoop basket by Delgado gave the schoolboys the first lead in the opening of the third act. The strength of the Dominican pivot, again a magnet with rebounds, maintained equality on the scoreboard of a match without an owner in that phase of the clash, in which individual actions were imposed on team play.
The baskets began to arrive with droppers, especially in the disciples of Cuspinera, who got stuck in the 50 points and received an 8-0 by the two triples of their former player Omar Cook and a mate from Cuban Jasiel Rivero. The fifth triple of McFadden turned the alarms back on on the WiZink Center, and the battle reached its final ten minutes with the Burgos seven up (60-67, min 30)
The youth squad Nacho
Stream and the newcomer Sakic, lethal from the perimeter, they tried to pull their team with good actions, but the exchange of blows benefited San Pablo, who dominated the scoreboard and headed the final straight ahead and five up in the middle of the last quarter (74-79, min 35).
In the blink of an eye, Burgos rent rose again to ten points. Nerves gripped the shooters of the Students at the least opportune moment and, although they managed to adjust the score a minute and a half from the conclusion (82-86), they could not complete the comeback and leave their future in the hands of Bilbao Basket.
After 27 defeats and only nine wins in a fateful season, only the victory of the Joventut Sunday in Mirabilla would save the Madrid team from disaster.
Data sheet
82 – Movistar Estudiantes (18 + 25 + 17 + 22): Cvetkovic (3), Avramovic (18), Vicedo (-), Delgado (16) and Brown (5) -the starting five-, Solá (9), Domínguez ( 4), Sakic (19) and Arroyo Varela (8)
88 – San Pablo Burgos inherits (30 + 17 + 20 + 21): Cook (6), McFadden (24), Rabaseda (7), Rivero (14) and Kravic (13) -starting five-, Renfroe (6), Saved (-), Benite (11), Horton (2), Sakho (-) and Salash (5).
Referees: Emilio Pérez Pizarro, Javier Torres and Rubén Sánchez Mohedas. Alec Brown eliminated for fouls
Incidents: Match of day 37 of the Endesa League played behind closed doors at the WiZink Center in Madrid. A minute of silence was observed for the one who was a doctor and Movistar Estudiantes player Juan Ángel García Reneses, recently deceased.