Eurocup – Joventut Badalone – JL Bourg (90-75): Out of breath!

By showing too many deficiencies in the game, the Bressans could not steal the first place in Group A from their evening opponent, Joventut Badalone. By finishing third, JL will find in the top 16 Virtus Bologna, Cedevita Olimpija Ljubjana and Buducnost Podgorica.

It was really time for the 2020 season to end for Bourg completely flat (8 games in 29 days, a second defeat in the Jeep Elite in Dijon this weekend). We can say that the law of the strongest or the coolest will have been dictated, Bourg has never led in this match and sailed around 10-15 points behind without ever really getting back on the heels of the Catalans.

By trying the bet to preserve Zachery Peacock, Savo Vucevic and his family suffered on post 4 against the duo Conor Morgan / Vladimir Brodziansky (14 and 15 points). Zack Wright’s prolonged absence also means that the absence of a substantial bench is felt. In the duel against Ante Tomic, Alen Omic (10 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 balls lost for 13 evaluation in 36 minutes) did not weigh enough on the game like Danilo Andjusic (16 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 4 balls lost for 10 evaluation in 28 minutes of play) contrary to his habit Bourg will never really have been in the rhythm and will have been shaken on the rebounds in addition to being clumsy (36.6 % of success).

Despite everything, this does not detract from the convincing course of the Bressans in the group stage and who will only have a few days to breathe before the resumption set for January 4.

Carles Duran (Badalona Youth): “I’m happy because the team worked very well, but the most important thing is that we finished first in our group. I think the team played well the whole game. It wasn’t until the second quarter that we had a lot of player changes, but we controlled the game until the end. We finished in first position and that’s good news, we brought Joventut back to this place. We are happy to end the year on a high note, and I hope this will give us the strength to start 2021 well, which is really exciting ”

Suso Vucevic (JL Bourg en Bresse): “First of all, I congratulate Joventut, they deserve the first place in our group. They showed from the start that they maybe have a more consistent squad throughout the course. Today I think we gave our maximum that we can give at this time. We missed a lot of players, especially Zach Peacock and Zack Wright. It was a chance for the youngsters, especially for the players who didn’t play a lot. I think we have done what we can at the moment and the result is normal ”

Xabi Lopez-Arostegui (Badalona Youth): “We are happy, first of all, because we pocketed the victory and we are the first team in the group. I think we made a great effort in defense. They scored more points than we wanted to allow in the third quarter, but in the end we pushed our defense, tried to run and we have to be happy with how we finished the game. Bourg is a great team. They play basketball well, as they showed in the first round. We did our job and we are happy about it, so let’s take advantage of this victory ”