FC Barcelona-Crvena Zvezda Telekom Belgrade (92-77)

[[DES_1]]The Palau Blaugrana witnessed another victory for the Barça basketball side in the Euroleague as Xavi Pascual's side overcame a Crvena Zvezda who were overwhelmed in the second half. Abrines was top scorer for the blaugranes with 15 points as five other players for Barça scored 10 or more points. The great atmosphere in the Palau helped the Barça basketball side to their second win in this season's top 16.

The encounter against the Serbian side was never going to be easy and the early minutes bore that out. Both sides exchanged scores with the first period proving to be a tight one until Barça pulled in the final minutes with successive three pointers from Thomas and Satoransky to give the home side a 27-21 lead at the end of the quarter.

Serbian fightback

The team from Belgrade piled on the pressure at the beginning of the second period and pulled themselves back to within two points. Despite two three pointers from Mario, Crvena drew level at 34-34, only for Barça to move up a gear with Mario Hezonja and Abrines imperious from the perimeter. Barça moved ahead to lead 49-38 at half time. In the second half, with Crvena knowing that only victory would suffice, Xavi Pascual's team remained calm and were able to preserve their first half advantage. With Marcelinho Huertas leading from the front, the blaugranes remained potent in attack and solid on defence.

Team effort

In the third quarter, DeShaun Thomas brought the Palau to its feet with two consecutive dunks as Barça maintained their lead at the end of the third quarter, opening up an 11 point advantage over the visitors at 70-59. In the fourth quarter there was no let up from the blaugranes and both Lampe and Hakanson had the opportunity to get out and enjoy some time on court. At one point the blaugranes led by 20 points before a late Crvena comeback saw the game end 92-77 with Barça claiming their second win in the Top 16. Next week Xavi Pascual's team are in Euroleage action once again at the Palau against Zalgiris Kaunas.