BELGRADE: Barcelona got their Euroleague campaign back on
track while Laboral Kutxa Vitoria moved closer to the competition's
Final Four after the two Spanish sides enjoyed contrasting wins over
their rivals on Friday.
Twice former winners Barca outclassed Lokomotiv Krasnodar
92-66 away to even their best-of-five quarter-final series at 1-1 while
Laboral took a 2-0 lead against Panathinaikos after an 82-78 overtime
home win over the Greek giants.
The series move to Barcelona and Athens, respectively, next week. In
the other two quarter-final match-ups, Fenerbahce Istanbul are 2-0 up
against holders Real Madrid and CSKA Moscow lead Red Star Belgrade by
the same score.The playoff winners advance to the May 13-15 Final Four in Berlin.
Smarting from a 66-61 defeat in game one, Barcelona produced a vintage performance to silence a passionate Russian crowd after nailing 16 three-pointers from 26 attempts.
Juan Carlos Navarro, the competition's all-time leading scorer, led Barcelona with 18 points, as four of his team mates also finished in double-scoring digits.
Barcelona, who squeezed into the knockout stage after a patchy regular season, will now be favourites to reach the Final Four as they are at home in the next two games.
"We were much more aggressive than in game one and played
with a lot of rhythm," said Barcelona's Czech guard Tomas Satoransky,
who had 13 points.
"Our bench provided plenty of depth but we still have a lot of
respect for Lokomotiv, who are a very physical team and play strong
defence," he added. "We just have to keep going."
Laboral spilled an eight-point lead in the final minute of
regular time but prevailed in the additional five minutes as guard
Darius Adams led the way with a game-high 24 points.
The playoffs continue on Monday with Red Star at home to CSKA.(Editing By Martyn Herman)
- Reuters
Double joy for Spain as Barcelona and Laboral win
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