Casademont lost to Estudiantes last Saturday, in their most recent performance, a victim of their defensive indolence and their anarchic and uncontrolled game. He exhibited a devastating attack at times, with a 65% effectiveness on his 3-pointers (13 of 20); but he was applied backwards with carelessness, apathy, indiscipline and laziness, with numerous neglects in his game, with an attitude inappropriate for a candidate for the ‘play off’ positions. The result was an unexpected defeat (104-113), in the Príncipe Felipe pavilion, which represents a gigantic, practically irreparable misstep in their ambitions to reach the top eight places in the classification. A mental setback for a group that seemed, at last, to have found the right path.
In Europe, however, the Casademont does present a successful, glittering journey, after having won seven wins in the eight games played. His only blemish is related to the defeat in Hungary, on December 22, against Falco Szombathely (94-86). In the rest of their performances, the Zaragoza team has always emerged victorious, regardless of the rival and the stage. Sergio Hernández’s team entered the second round as seed, having finished the inaugural phase as the leader of Group D –five wins in six days–, and they face the tournament with the highest aspirations. Your most immediate challenge is to sneak into the final phase, a Final to Eight initially set for the first week of May (from 5 to 9) and whose venue, yet to be determined, will be announced once all the classified teams are known.
And the trajectory of the Zaragozans is firm, imposing, also in the second round of the competition. He started this ‘play off’ phase with a creditable victory in Italy, on March 2, against Dinamo Sassari (83-95); and later defeated Brose Bamberg (77-65), in the Príncipe Felipe pavilion, to rise to the leadership of Group L. The Germans, in this way, conceded their second European defeat, after having bit the dust against Nymburg, in the Czech Republic (91-87), in the previous day, and they are forced to win today at Casademont Zaragoza to continue opting for the final phase. The German team is now in an agonizing situation, of maximum risk, despite having completed an impeccable first round: he had captured victory in all six of his games, having twice beaten Fortitudo Bolonia, Bilbao Basket and Pinar Karsiyaka. However, Brose Bamberg is now on the ropes, having competed in the second phase without their full potential, diminished by injuries and the effects of covid-19.
Casademont, initially, faced Nymburk on March 16, on the third day of the ‘play off’; But it was the duel that was postponed due to the cases of coronavirus detected in the Czech squad, whose players will remain confined to their homes until tomorrow. The solution of the Basketball Champions League was to modify the calendar, bringing forward to today the duel that faced the Aragonese team with Brose Bamberg, in Germany, and that corresponded to the sixth day of the competition.
No concessions are expected from the German team, which recovers troops with respect to the match on March 10, held in the Príncipe Felipe pavilion. Then the forwards Devon Hall (10.5 points on average per match) and Dominic Lockhart (9 points, 3.2 assists) did not act, who today will represent a significant threat from the perimeter. On the inside line, David Kravish (13.8 points and 6.5 rebounds) and Chris Sengfelder (10.5 points and 6.3 sacks) are his most incisive players.
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