Spain solves its last test before the Pre-Olympic

Victory by 84-74 of Scariolo’s pupils against Dominican Republic

The Spanish men’s basketball team won this Friday 84-74 against the Dominican Republic, with a key contribution from point guard Lorenzo Brown in the last game of Sergio Scariolo’s pupils before their Pre-Olympic Tournament, which will be held in Valencia on 2 to July 7 on the field of the Fuente de San Luis Pavilion.

On identical dates, the Caribbean team will face the same challenge in Piraeus (Greece), seeking to crystallize in Paris (France) the dream of competing in the Olympic Games for the first time in its history. Of course, they will fight in that event without Karl-Anthony Towns, power forward for the Minnesota Timberwolves, and without Al Horford, center for the Boston Celtics.

Chris Duarte, the Sacramento Kings’ shooting guard and the standard-bearer for his team in the first half of this friendly at the Pedro Ferrándiz Pavilion (Alicante), is in the Dominican squad. Lorenzo Brown returned to wear the Spanish jersey, almost two years after his great performance in the Eurobasket that ‘La Familia’ won.

Both Duarte for the visitors and Brown for the home team took the lead from the start. In fact, a three-pointer from the naturalized Spanish point guard briefly prevented the Dominican Republic from increasing its lead (9-10), in a first quarter where Néstor ‘Ché’ García’s pupils ‘rubbered’ the scoreboard.

After going six points down (16-22), Rudy Fernández brought Spain closer again with a triple (23-24) that sealed the opening quarter. The attacking breakthrough of Víctor Liz and Jean Montero, under the direction of Andrés Feliz, gave the Caribbeans a small lead (26-31). However, Scariolo rotated the bench and Spain improved somewhat.

A triple scored by Santi Aldama and later another by Darío Brizuela kept ‘La Familia’ hooked on their opponent, who faltered a couple of actions in the low post due to the momentum of Jaime Pradilla and Usman Garuba. Once the comeback was over (35-33), the young point guard Sergio de Larrea entered the scene, thus making his debut with the senior team.

Invited a few days ago to complete Scariolo’s training sessions, De Larrea scored his first two points with ‘La Familia’ senior following an illegal block by an opponent. But then he got even in a big way, with a front triple executing a ‘step back’ and at the final horn of the second period, making it 43-38 at the light.

After the break, Feliz and Montero combined well on several occasions to prevent Spain from leaving, having neutralized another triple from Brown (50-43). The ups and downs of the match heralded another extension, like the one that occurred last Tuesday during the previous friendly against the Italian team at the WiZink Center in Madrid.

However, the choral distribution of offensive tasks and the greater intensity in defence led to the score going from 50-53 to 63-57 with which the third quarter ended, including a three-pointer by Rudy Fernández at the buzzer. The veteran Real Madrid shooting guard, on the verge of retiring as a professional, was more involved than anyone else.

His tough defensive character, which has so often brought glory to the Madrid club, helped his teammates gain momentum against a Dominican Republic with fewer rotations. The fatigue of his key players became apparent at the beginning of the fourth and final period, where Spain managed to gain an advantage of +11 (71-60, 73-62).

Point guard Alberto Díaz joined the good Spanish version, with a basket from distance, and Rudy did the same with another triple for his personal baggage. So the threat in attack was no longer only the performance of Garuba, who enjoyed more minutes than the brothers Willy and Juancho Hernangómez, clearly controlled by Scariolo.

The Italian coach’s fear, just four days before the start of the Olympic Qualifying Tournament, is that one of his players will get injured. And there was a scare in the final minutes of this match, due to a blow to the nose that Xabi López-Arostegui received after fighting for a rebound; despite everything, the Valencia Basket forward recovered immediately.

In the final minutes, the Dominican Republic tried unsuccessfully to close the gap on the scoreboard of a Pedro Ferrándiz team that was thrilled with the home team’s victory. There will be no more tests on the horizon for ‘La Familia’ before next July 2, when the Pre-Olympic tournament opens with a duel against the Lebanese team.

DATASHEET.

–RESULT: SPAIN, 84 – DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, 74 (43-38, at halftime).

–EQUIPMENT:

SPAIN: Brown (14), Llull (5), López-Arostegui (2), J.Hernangómez (6) and W.Hernangómez (6) –starting quintet–; Brizuela (8), Díaz (6), Rudy Fernández (9), Garuba (7), Aldama (7), Parra (5), Pradilla (2) and De Larrea (7).

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Feliz (5), Duarte (27), Henriquez (5), Nunez (8) and Santos (4) –starting five–; De Leon (-), Pena (1), Polanco (-), J.Montero (13), Liz (5) and Vargas (6).

–PARTIALS: 23-24, 20-14, 20-19 and 21-17.

–REFEREES: Padrós, Castillo and Zamorano. No eliminations.

–PAVILION: Pedro Ferrándiz from Alicante.

–INCIDENTS: Before starting the match, a minute of silence was observed for the recent death of José Ramón Ramos, former player among other teams of Estudiantes and Real Madrid.