Alimerka Oviedo, 84-Iraurgi ISB, 78
Rooms: 25-25; 24-17; 18-11; 17-25
Referees: Mikel Cañigueral, María Ángeles García and Daniel Cervantes. No exclusions.
Pumarín Sports Center: Full.
The Time.news of the victory (84-78) of Alimerka Oviedo Baloncesto against Iraurgi
The Alimerka Oviedo resurrects
The OCB beat Iraurgi in a life or death match for salvation, in which they only needed to turn the average around, in a crowded Pumarín
Matches like the one that Alimerka Oviedo Baloncesto brought forward (84-78) yesterday against Iraurgi win over the rival and oneself. The Carbayón team fulfilled the established plan, they had minutes in which they performed at a high level, other phases were not so good and, although they reached the decisive minutes with a significant income, they were not able to scare away all their ghosts and ended up losing the basket. -average (in the first leg they fell 94-85) after a couple of errors and some bad decisions at the end.
But that’s a very small matter, something secondary compared to the importance of finishing the game having scored more points than the rival, that the players feel that they are prepared to face a season finale that will be very hard, in which bad times will come. , but now it is seen in a different way, outside of relegation, with a joy that is pure gold for a squad that is adapting to a very different way of playing, with other ideas in attack and even with different protagonists.
One of them, chosen by the fans after the game as the best player, is Marc Martí, who in addition to being a high-level power forward is the heart of this team, someone who has had a very bad time and for whom all his teammates they are almost as happy as he is about his good performance. “I’m finally enjoying myself,” said someone after the game who has spent more than a year injured in his knee and who had just scored eleven essential points for the OCB.
The game followed a dangerous script for the locals, with a tight score and an outside success from Iraurgi that, at times, allowed them to have a favorable score (they went 16-22 with 2:30 left to finish the first quarter) that threatened to undermine the low confidence of the blue team. But no, this was not the day for any melancholy, and the OCB, with a triple at the last second by Martí, concluded that first quarter tied (25-25).
The Pumarín effect was also present there, that fort that knew the role it had to play and did it, cheering, squeezing and applauding the mistakes and successes of its players. And, with that support, the OCB gradually took the game at their pace, fast, finding their shooters more clearly and looking for the superiority they had over their rival in the inside game. Imperial was Clevon Brown, who gives the team that much-needed physique, with some spectacular blocks that roused the crowd. Despite everything, Iraurgi, a good team, remained hooked on the game. Only the triples by Thorir Thorbjarnarson (another who took a step forward) and Brown himself made the lead at halftime stretch a bit (49-42).
Some of the blue team’s best minutes came in the third quarter, with an inspired Romeo Crouch and Pruitt finally finding the outside hitter. A basket by Brown raised the lead to seventeen points (67-50) at 1.14 to finish the third quarter. But a triple from Iraurgi reduced that lead (67-53) for the last quarter. One could begin to think about the basket-average, that undeclared objective that was beginning to be seen as achievable, but the ghosts of a very complicated season came to the team in the last minutes, with many disappointments. Losses and fear of a catastrophe arrived and that caused them to dedicate themselves, above all, to finishing with more points than their rival. The last play was also a shame for those from Oviedo, with eight up (84-76), which was resolved with a missed triple by Romeo Crouch when a basket would have served. A lesser evil. The final joy shows that this OCB is alive and that it comes out very strengthened from a game that was life or death.
The words of Guillermo Arenas after his return to Pumarín as OCB coach
“The effort of the players is highly valued, they are involved and involved»
“To feel Pumarín’s push again, that the public is on top of the field, all that heat, makes you enjoy”
Guillermo Arenas’s face after beating Iraurgi reflected satisfaction for the victory and because the players have followed the path he has set for them, giving themselves up to achieve a victory that, the coach points out, should not be marred by the error in the last play that prevented them from turning the basket-average around: “The team’s effort is highly valued, they have done two weeks of intense work, they have been very good defensively and in attack we needed to adjust certain things but the third quarter shows that the players They are involved and they are involved”.
Arenas added that, after the match, he told his players that “we have to be happy not only for the victory but for how the team has behaved; they were all involved, we found points with many players, that’s important, we need them to all”. A victory that should serve to scare away ghosts and gain security: “It is important because of the confidence in what we are working on; if you work well, that they are doing it, and you do not get victories, we know that this is sport and that confidence drops and you do not finish to find shots that today (yesterday) they have found”.
The Oviedo coach did acknowledge that that last play was “a pity”: “A pity about the last play, that we blinded ourselves with the shot from three instead of penetrating and trying to force because we only needed two points for the average.” But, insisted Arenas, “we have to stay with the game we have played. There are things to improve, there are minutes that we have to correct and we have to better manage income like the 17 points we had,” he said.
He also had words of praise for the atmosphere in Pumarín: “To feel Pumarín’s drive again, that the public is on top of the field, all that heat, makes you smile, enjoy and you tell yourself that here you live something else.” As for LeCesne, who did not play at all, he explains that he was not at the level of the rest: “He has not been able to train normally and to play at this level we all have to train at that level; the rest are at 200% and it is with what that I want to stay.” He also does not know if LeCesne will return to that level that he asks for: “I push for everyone, but the players have to take a step forward and believe, I can push but they are the ones who are going to come out to play. I will continue pushing for everyone and we will be all those who want to be”, settled.