From the beginning it was clear that we are at the beginning of the season and also that Valencia is more advanced in preparation. Barça still has a lot of work ahead of it, but its wardrobe background is almost infinite and it has quality per arrobas.
The whistles to Nikola Mitoric were a constant every time the forward touched a ball and the equality in the score at the end of the first quarter, 15-15, was a faithful reflection of the merits of both teams.
In the second act, Barça had a flat encephalogram for the first five minutes, in which only Brandon Davies demonstrated his individual quality with 4 points.
The 19-26 (m.15) forced Svetislav Pesic to put all his gunpowder on the track with the return of Mirotic, Ante Tomic and Cory Higgins. Barça came out of its offensive lethargy, but continued without finishing closing the bottom line in defense, a true Achilles heel of their game that the Levantines exploited ad nauseam.
Valencia, with Mike Tobey and Brock Motum very intoned, took the reins of scoring and were the main architects of Valencia reaching the break leading the score, 29-32.
Another of the data from the first twenty minutes of the game that showed that it is the first official game of the season was the hit from the triple, 2 of 13 for both teams and a weak 15.4 percent accuracy.
A minute and a half of the continuation was what Mirotic, author of 5 points, needed to return his new team to command on the scoreboard, 34-32.
A triple by Víctor Claver and another by Mirotic himself increased the starting set to 11-0, 40-32 (m.24). Until Louis Labeyrie, a World Cup player with France, broke the spell with a winger triple.
The Catalans felt better playing with the scoreboard in the franchise, but they could not prevent Valencia from coming out of their scoring drought, with a good Vanja Marinkovic and that at the end of the third quarter the score was balanced, 49-49.
Two quality triples from Marinkovic allowed Valencia to get ahead again on the scoreboard, 54-58 (m.32.45) and for Pesic to call his team to capitulations in a timeout.
Mirotic, Davies, Kevin Pangos, Kyle Kuric and Higgins shot individually to close the score (71-65), the game and the move to the final.
– Data sheet
71 – Barça (15 + 14 + 20 + 22): Pangos (5), Higgins (15), Claver (11), Mirotic (14) and Tomic (3) -starting five-, Davies (6), Hanga, Smits , Oriola, Delaney (8) and Kuric (9).
65 – Valencia (15 + 17 + 17 + 16): Abalde (4), Van Rossom (7), Motum (10), Sastre and Dubljevic -starting five-, Marinkovic (17), Loyd (7), Labeyrie (5 ), Tobey (9), Vives (3), San Emeterio and Doomekamp (3).
Referees: Daniel Hierrezuelo, Carlos Cortés and Raúl Zamorano. Guillem Vives was eliminated by five personals (m.40).
Incidents: First semifinal of the Ebdesa Super Cup played at the Palacio de los Deporte (Wizink Center) in Madrid before 9,675 spectators. EFE