The ‘Penya’ keeps Barça away from the Cup and Valencia Basket maintains the lead

Barça lost this Sunday against Joventut Badalona in extra time (90-91) and sees its chances of being in the next edition of the Copa del Rey basketball in jeopardy, in a fifteenth round of the Endesa League in which Valencia Basket maintains the lead with its victory in A Coruña (91-99) and in which Dreamland Gran Canaria has surpassed Covirán Granada (82-97).

The lack of success from the free throw line in the last seconds of overtime sentenced Joan Peñarroya’s team; The Czech Tomas Satoransky missed the two he threw with eight seconds remaining, while the Canadian guard Kassius Robertson did not waste the two he had with only two seconds left.

Before, the Barça team, which arrived euphoric after its victory in Paris, had to recover from an adverse 11-21 at the start of the duel at the Palau, which set off all the alarms. They improved their performance in the second quarter, thanks above all to the 14 points of the American Chimezie Metu, and left only four points behind in the locker room (36-40).

Upon returning to the court, Joventut extended the lead to ten points (38-48), a difference that was maintained when there were only six minutes left in the game (57-67). It was then when three triples from Kevin Punter returned hope to the culé team and tightened the fight, which finally continued in extra time after 76-76 of regulation time.

In the last five minutes, the lack of success condemned the Blaugranas, who fell to ninth position in the table (7-7, with one less game, the one they will play this Tuesday against Bàsquet Girona), out of the eight places that give access to the cup tournament, which Casademont Zaragoza closes for the moment (8-7). Joventut Badalona will qualify for the Cup if Baskonia loses this Monday against Real Madrid.

Meanwhile, at the Coliseum of A Coruña, Valencia Basket achieved the twelfth league victory of the season although they suffered to defeat Leyma Coruña (91-99), a result that guarantees them the leadership of the Endesa League and that brings them closer to securing the seeded status for the Copa del Rey de Gran Canaria 2025.

The defensive errors of Pedro Martínez’s team left alive a Galician team that, led by Cuban point guard Yunio Barrueta (20 points), did not go into the break ahead only because of a triple by Senegalese Brancou Badio at the buzzer ( 48-51).

With only two points ahead before the final quarter, the ‘taronja’ relied on the work of Armenian guard Chris Jones (18 points) and American center Matt Costello (21) to defend the victory.

Finally, Dreamland Gran Canaria rose to fourth place after beating a combative Covirán Granada (82-97) thanks to the work of American guard Caleb Homesley and Slovenian center Mike Tobey, who contributed 22 and 18 points respectively.

The Andalusian team remained in the fight in the duel at the Sports Palace, which reached halftime with a 38-45 in favor of the yellow team, which seemed to break the match with an 8-0 after returning from the locker room. However, it was not until the last quarter when Jaka Lakovic’s men dealt the final blow with four triples from Homesley.