Benfica won their first FIBA European Cup win this Wednesday, beating the Russians from Parma-Parimatch in Lisbon 83-69 in the second round of Group C. In Pavillan Fidelidade, the first and third partial games. were decisive for the “embodied”, who presented themselves with a difference of more than 10 points – 23-13 and 26-9, respectively.
The second part was the one in which the balance was obvious, confirming the equality of 20-20, which did not call into question the superiority embodied in the meeting, which ended in a more relaxed fourth and final part (27-14), in which the Russians took the opportunity to close the distances. On Benfica’s side, Aaron Broussard finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and 8 assists, while Marcel Ponitka was the best on the opposite side, just one point less than Orlov base, the same number of rebounds and still three assists. …
Jose Barbosa with 14 points and Travis Munnings with 16 were two other Benfica players who were in good shape with the Portuguese team.
At the end, Norberto Alves emphasized the cohesion of his team. “According to our game plan, we had to take risks. We have prepared a defense with many block exchanges, taking risks. They are really great, but we forced them to leave the team to play like us. This allowed us to stay more at the table level. They are very big and really nice. I leave the word to the guys for their excellent team feeling and defensive mutual assistance. After all, we didn’t have oxygen, to defend our defenses we had to give what we had and what we didn’t have. We were in trouble, James Farr played with sprain, Arnett [Hallman] he didn’t train, he just came to the game, Thomas [Barroso] too, but we kept hope of moving forward. The boys should no doubt be congratulated and I think the Benfica fans are proud of that, ”the Eagles coach said in statements posted on the Benfica website.
On the next round, scheduled for October 27, the Lisbon-based club will visit the Opava Pavilion in the Czech Republic.
