Some 2,600 spectators gathered at the Raimundo Saporta arena to see the easy win of Real Madrid over Buducnost of Podgorica by 90-71 in Group C on Wednesday. This win raises Real's record to 6-2 and drops Buducnost's to 2-6 to remain at the bottom of Group C. Before the game, a minute of silence was kept in memory of the mythic Bosnian player Mirza Delibasic, an ex-member of Real Madrid, who passed away last Saturdaty at 47. Then, the best homage possible was a great basketball, which was what Real played tonight, led by Dusan Vukcevic who scored 13 points, followed by Eric Struelens with 12, Dragan Tarlac with 11 and Lucio Angulo who added 10. For the guests, Igor Rakocevic hit 16 points and he had the help of Zarko Cabarkapa with 13 points, Nikola Jestratijevic with 12 and Dejan Radonjic with 11.
The game began with a relaxed Real and Rakocevic began playing his own game right before head coach Sergio Scariolo's unbelieving eyes, scoring 7 points in the first 4 minutes and gave Buducnost a halo of danger which nobody wanted or expected to see at the Raimundo Saporta, to put Buducnost ahead by 5, 14-19. That's when the change arrived. L. Angulo set an example to follow among his teammates, even though this cost him the third foul only 11 minutes into the game. When Real began taking defense seriously, that's when the game fell on their side to stay there. An outstanding 30-7 run from minute 8 to minute 17 (44-26) made clear the big difference between the two teams, but also brought relax enough to Madrid again to have the score alive again, but the teams went to the lockerrooms with a clear 13-point lead for Real, 52-39.
From here, it was too easy for Madrid to lose the game and miss the chance to bury the defeats against Panathinaikos last week, and Joventut of Badalona in the domestic league. Even though Buducnost was a team until the end of the game, there was nothing they could do because the deal had been sealed long before. At the end, 90-71.
Wednesday, December 12, 2001
Jorge Muñoa, Madrid
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