PHOTOS: Sergio Betancort
Aloe Plus Lanzarote Conejero and Náutico Kia Tenerife had to play an overtime to decide the winner of a match where the alternatives on the scoreboard were continuous, despite the dominance of the Lanzarote team in the first half of it. The final result of 80 to 88 gave the victory to the visiting team and forced the orange team to add its fourth consecutive defeat.
It had been a difficult week for the locals who had discharged Twymond Howard and Jerell Ellis, in addition to the fact that some players were not in full condition. Even so, they gave everything on the court, making a good inside game and suffering, in the first three baskets of the rival team, three triples that made it clear that the rival could be dangerous inside, but also outside. Despite the equality on the scoreboard, Samuel Sosa's boys left with a slight advantage of 16 to 14.
In the second quarter, the locals took advantage of the confusion that Santiago Lucena's team had on the court to put land in between and gain an advantage of up to 9 points, a circumstance that set off the alarms in the Tenerife team. It seemed that the orange team had found its best game and with some triples that they scored, added to the tremendous success under the hoops of the Bosnian Andrej Tomic, the road was opening to break a streak of matches that already added three without knowing the victory. The work of Jarad Scott, as well as the scoring success of Javi Herrero and the Lanzarote combination between Cécimo Armas and Raúl Rodríguez, led Aloe Plus Lanzarote to halftime with a 7-point advantage, 40 to 33.
After passing through the changing rooms, the Tenerife team began to change its work dynamics. Ayose Alonso began to take ownership of the situation and Samuel Rodríguez began to take on more prominence. Meanwhile, the local team was accumulating personal fouls, especially Scott and Tomic who were on the verge of elimination, as well as two plays in which the locals committed a foul on the three-point shooter, giving the possibility of scoring three points in both plays to the Tenerife players, as they effectively did. The first symptoms of nerves began to appear, which were quickly stopped by Samuel Sosa. Elvis Pereira and Charles Yassi came out as replacement players but, despite having a positive contribution, they could do nothing to ensure that at the end of the third quarter the difference had disappeared and remained only at two points, 59 to 57.
In the last quarter, the alternatives on the scoreboard were many, even up to 5 points for the Tenerife players, but it gave the sensation that the teams were conspiring with destiny in search of emotion and several visiting errors allowed the locals to level the score again, and so on during the 10 minutes of the quarter. But before, things happened, and important ones. Jarad Scott would see the fifth foul when there were 7 minutes left to play in this quarter, and then it was Andrej Tomic who was forced to take the path to the bench. The visitors, with the fouls more distributed, breathed easy to see how their rival was losing two of their important offensive bastions. Elvis and Charles were forced to take a further step in their sporting career and have many more minutes than usual, with a satisfactory response.
Náutico and Aloe Plus Lanzarote Conejero continued without breaking the tie. The last possession for the Lanzarote team, which concluded by exhausting almost all the time with a triple by Raúl Rodríguez that did not go in, the Tenerife team responding with a shot from their field by Roberto de la Rosa that was not scored either. Thus, with the score of 74 to 74, the teams went to try to break the tie in an overtime.
Náutico Kia Tenerife made better use of the overtime, knowing how to strengthen the attack and strengthen the defense, against a team that saw how Raúl Rodríguez and Javi Herrero saw the fourth personal foul, in decisions, highly protested by the orange fans. While the visiting team continued to extend the differences, ending up breaking the game with a triple that, despite trying until the end, made the effort made to obtain a new victory useless. The result at the conclusion, 80 to 88 for Náutico de Tenerife.
Technical Sheet
Aloe Plus Lanzarote Conejero (80): Cécimo Armas (11), Raúl Rodríguez (16). Javi Herrero (20), Andrej Tomic (19) and Jarad Scott (10) -starting five- Elvis Pereira, Charles Yassi (4) and César Hernández. Coach: Samuel Sosa
Náutico Kia Tenerife (88): Ayose Alonso (29), Samuel Rodríguez (20), Juan García (8), Serigne Niang (2) and Roberto de la Rosa (12) -starting five- Eduardo Ruiz, Jorge del Pino, Sami Eleraky (14) and Adnan Omeragic (3). Coach: Santiago Lucena
Referees: Yurena Hernández and Roger Pinyol. They excluded Andrej Tomic and Jarad Scott for personal fouls for the locals and Sami Eleraky for the visitors.
Partial scores: 16-14 / 40-33 (halftime) 59-57 / 74-74 (overtime) 80-88 (final)
Incidents: Match of the 19th day of the EBA League, group B, played in the Sports City Pavilion before about 200 fans
