BAXI Manresa fly high, finish strong against Darussafaka
MANRESA (Spain) - There was a huge comeback happening with Darussafaka cutting the gap to four points in the fourth quarter, but BAXI Manresa enjoyed the home court advantage to withstand the run and win the game 89-74.
The win meant the party can go on in Manresa, in similar fashion with the rest of their season, in front of the packed red stands in Spain. They are now 1-1 in Group J, sending Darussafaka to 1-2.
Turning point: Darussafaka trailed by 19 points, but did not give up, crawling all the way back to 65-61 early on in the fourth quarter.
Sylvain Francisco and Chima Moneke put more daylight between the teams with six quick points, and another Francisco three-pointer made it a 12-point game with five minutes to play.
The Turkish team did not dive any deeper, but could not swim back to safety either, as Joe Thomasson kept the defense guessing with his dribbling, shooting and passing to close out the game.
Googling when does the new Dancing with stars season start 🕺#BasketballCL #RoadToBilbao I @BasquetManresa @JT_thomassonJr pic.twitter.com/PpwaEbbwG5
— Basketball Champions League (@BasketballCL) February 9, 2022
Game heroes: Thomasson had 11 points, 9 assists and 3 steals, Yankuba Sima got 14 points off the bench, Juampi Vaulet scored 13, same as Moneke, while Ismael Bako dunked his way to 10 points and 8 rebounds. Eight players scored eight or more for Manresa.
Stats don't lie: Coach Pedro Martinez could enjoy the strength of his team on the night, especially the team-first mentality that was evident with 26 assists compared to 13 for Darussafaka.
Stop scrolling, we've got the coolest assist of the year 😎🤙#BasketballCL #RoadToBilbao I @BasquetManresa pic.twitter.com/GuMIkxrQMM
— Basketball Champions League (@BasketballCL) February 9, 2022
Bottom line: Manresa bounced back after their defeat to Tofas Bursa, and once again proved they are the team to beat this season. When they are sharing the ball like this, it feels like they are unstoppable.
Darussafaka played without the MVP of January Dogus Ozdemiroglu and Gabriel Olaseni had a slow night with just 3 points. It was always going to be an uphill battle for them, and not even 22 points from Wayne McCullough could help them avoid a double digit defeat.
They said:
"The first half was really solid from our team. We played good defense, were able to run the fast break and play with rhythm. That's how we play, that's where we feel more comfortable. In the third quarter things got a little bit out of control. We did not concentrate on defense, and on offense we were playing really slow basketball. I think that's why we lost the big lead that we had at halftime." - Yankuba Sima, BAXI Manresa
