Joventut reached the semifinals of the Endesa League playoffs for the first time in 14 years after beating Lenovo Tenerife at the Palau Olímpic in the third and final quarter-final match (81-58). La Penya dominated the match from start to finish, with a 13-5 run in the first quarter and a 16-point lead at halftime (38-22).
After the restart, Carles Duran's men kept a very erratic team from Tenerife at bay. The best of the duel was Ante Tomic, with 17 points and 11 rebounds. The next rival of the green and black will be Barça. The first game of the best-of-five series will be played on Friday.
Surrounded by more than 9,000 followers, the locals put more energy and offensive arguments than the Tenerife team, who with 9 of 34 in triples and 18 rebounds lost under their hoops was always far from the green game. The story of the first game was repeated in the first part of the third, with Joventut clearly dominating the game from their defense and Lenovo Tenerife conditioned by their disastrous success in the triples, especially in a first quarter in which they made 1 of 11 .
Tomic began scoring at the start of the second period and the triples by Parra and Andrés Feliz launched Joventut to a maximum lead of 17 points (28-11, min. 16). Tenerife continued without improving in the triple and Shermadini and Guerra hardly had any options under the hoops. Parra and Feliz -21 points between them- were the black-and-white leaders in that section.
The game script did not change after the break. La Penya continued adding easy baskets and Tenerife betting on the 6.75 line, with Sasu Salin as the only successful player. Willis and Vives launched the black-and-white, who went up to a 22-point lead (56-34, min. 28).
The people of Tenerife, with a Marcelinho Huertas surpassed by the defense of Andrés Feliz, could not find a way to tighten the scoring. Four points from Tomic at the start of the last quarter left the game seen for judgment (64-42, min. 32). Lenovo Tenerife never managed to match the physical level or accuracy of La Penya, who managed to win by 26 points (81-56, min. 40).
Joventut Badalona (13 25 22 21): Feliz (16), Ribas (2), Parra (14), Willis (8), Tomic (17) -initial team-, Vives (16), Busquets (2), Bassas ( -), Birgander (6), Ventura (-) and Maronka (-).
Lenovo Tenerife (5 17 18 18): Fitipaldo (11), Huertas (9), Doornekamp (-), Wiltjer (3), Shermadini (11) -initial team-, Salin (13), Sastre (-), Sulejmanovic ( 11), War (1), Borg (2)
Referees: Hierrezuelo, Pérez Pizarro and Sánchez. No eliminations. Incidents: third and last game of the Endesa League quarterfinal playoff played at the Palau Olímpic before 9,167 spectators.
