 The fourth week of the regular season travelled to Barcelona, Spain to see Regal FC Barcelona get rid of visiting Asseco Prokom by 74-62. After a close, tight first half, Roger Grimau and Juan Carlos Navarro turned things around for the hosts in the third quarter for good. The win lifts Barca to a 3-1 recordin Group B, while Prokom drops to 1-3. Navarro led the way with 21 points and David Andersen helped with 10 points. For Prokom, Pat Burke chipped in 14 points and Ronnie Burrell posted 10.
Without Jaka Lakovic available for the game, Regal FC Barcelona started charging on the paint to take advantage of a bigger line-up as David Andersen scored
the 2-0 but soon, Ronnie Burrel matched him. A fast game had both teams struggling in offense in the opening plays, until Dan Ewing hit a jumper for 2-4.
Barca started looking for better options in offense, but Prokom scored fast to stay in the game. Ewing and Burrell led Prokom to an 8-8 that had both teams
with problems again, but after a couple tries, Andre Barrett finally managed to drive to the basket for 10-8. Ewing fed Burrell for a slam that put the
guests ahead, 10-12 to close the first period.
A new face finally scored for Prokom as David Logan slammed for 10-14, but Roger Grimau replied in the same manner. Prokom committed its fifth foul only two
minutes into the period allowing the hosts to travel to the free throw line for the rest of the quarter. Starting at that point, Gianluca Basile capped an 8
-0 spurt of the hosts from downtown for a 20-16 edge. Pat Burke and Andersen exchanged baskets beneath, and the rest followed the trend with inside baskets
with Jordi Trias and Filip Dylewicz joining in. More easy baskets by the hosts launched the score to a 30-22 lead. Koko Archibong broke the hosts' zone
defense from 5 meters, and Burke did the same to close the first half with a 30-26 for Barcelona.
 With the start of the third quarter, Barcelona started combining better in offense and showing its power under the rims. Juan Carlos Navarro opened the
period with a triple and soon, Daniel Santiago and Andersen teamed up for four straight points. Dylewicz became the protagonist for Prokom as he tried to
keep the guests in the game, but Navarro finally stepped up, and started adding points to lead Barcelona to a 54-38 score as he hit his 18th point overall
and 14th in the quarter of Barca's 24 at that point. The hosts played easy finding Fran Vazquez underneath, and at the same time kept the defensive pressure
on the court to drive Prokom crazy. Nihad Dedovic stepped on court for Barca for his second ever Euroleague appearance as the game went into the last quarter
with a 58-42 Barcelona edge.
Dylewicz opened the last period with a dunk to show that Prokom would not surrender so easily. The guests started dominating the offensive rebounds as
Archibong scored for 58-46. Lubos Barton hit the turnaround jumper to keep Barca going, but Aleksej Nesovic replied with a three. Grimau, the man who led the
hosts to the reaction, scored again but Burke hit another bomb that made it 64-52 and a new Prokom possession with 4:35 to go. However, Vazquez's basket together with Ersan Ilyasova's three put Barcelona out of reach for good.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Euroleague.net
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