2023-12-31 05:00:43
Alimerka Oviedo, 83-UEMC Real Valladolid, 66
Rooms: 19-9; 20-19; 22-12; 22-26
Referees: Sandra Sánchez, Javier Ávila and Sergio Acevedo. They excluded the local Hall Elisias for 5 fouls, with 4.29 left and the visitor Schmidt for a double technique with 2.25 left in the match.
Pumarín Sports Center: Full. About 1,400 spectators.
It is difficult to imagine an end to 2023 as perfect for Alimerka Oviedo as the one they had yesterday at the Pumarín sports center, with an incontestable victory (83-66) against a great team, Valladolid, and with the public filling the stands of a venue that, when the works on the Sports Palace are completed, it will be close to becoming a beautiful memory. A place that will remain forever in the memory of Oviedo basketball fans, where they saw incredible things and where this club grew to become a LEB Oro classic that, to face greater challenges, has to move to a bigger house and comfortable. It is not yet known if there will be another end of the year in Pumarín for Oviedo Baloncesto, but of course yesterday would serve as a wonderful epilogue.
This victory has a very special flavor after a complicated year, in which they achieved with great effort, after many hardships and suffering, the permanence in the LEB Oro with a coach as important for this club as Guillermo Arenas at the helm. Now, the OCB has managed to start a new project, again with few financial resources, but with the enthusiasm of a young group that is winning the affection of the fans. With better days and worse days, this team coached by Javi Rodríguez – another coach of the house who is doing a spectacular job – transmits very positive things and is capable of playing basketball as it did yesterday in Pumarín, that is, like the angels .
The defensive work that Alimerka did to stop Valladolid, which arrived at Pumarín with ten wins and four losses, was close to perfection. A 40-minute effort that ended up suffocating one of the most physical teams in the category. The work of Chapela (great reinforcement that the OCB has done with the Galician point guard) in the direction was commendable in the absence due to injury of Josep Pérez. But all that effort crystallized thanks to the talent of Demetric Horton who did what he wanted, when he wanted and how he wanted to lift Pumarín. The American finished with 25 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists in his most serious game as a professional, with few errors and scoring baskets of great merit.
But it was the entire OCB that worked for this victory, from Cosialls who always contributes to Rozitis who had very interesting moments, perhaps also having his best game of the course. Javi Rodríguez’s team already set the measure of what the game was going to be in the first quarter, in which he achieved a ten-point lead, leaving his rival at only nine (19-9). In the second, Valladolid held on to the clash, which was being very tough, a melee of enormous physical demand, but Horton appeared to score a triple from home, another good defensive action came and a new triple from Chapela to put the score was 39-28 at halftime. And with Pumarín having a blast with what he was seeing.
It was the third set that left the clash doomed. And that started badly for the home team, thick in attack. A partial score of 0-7 in a minute and a half tightened the score (39-35) and made us fear the reaction of a team that aspires to fight for the noble positions. But no one was going to spoil the party for the OCB and they put in one more gear, of course, in defense to, in a flash, completely dismast their rival. Horton’s free throw for a technical after a hard foul on Martí put the lead at fifteen points (52-37) with 5.40 left in the third quarter, which finally ended with Alimerka Oviedo Baloncesto 21 up (61-40).
The last quarter was too much, although the OCB never lowered that intensity and desire that Paco García, coach of Valladolid, recognized to Pumarín’s team in the press conference after the match. A victory with which to face the OCB with optimism for 2024 comes happy and eager to have fun and have fun.
#year #party #Pumarín #Alimerka #Oviedo #Baloncesto #wins #Valladolid #defensive #exhibition