2010-11Regular SeasonRound 1
October 21, 2010 CET: 20:45
Local time: 20:45 PALAU BLAUGRANA
Ricky Rubio - Regal FC Barcelona - EB10

Regal FC Barcelona downed Cibona 80-66

There were no big surprises in the opening night of the 2010-11 Turkish Airlines Euroleague for reigning champ Regal FC Barcelona, as it defeated Cibona 80-66 in a Group C home game played Thursday. A slow scoring first quarter kept things close but when Barca improved defense, Cibona seemed to be helpless and the hosts just kept increasing the gap. Next week Barcelona travels to France to meet Cholet Basket while Cibona welcomes Fenerbahce Ulker in Zagreb. Ricky Rubio, on the day of his 20th birthday, and Juan Carlos Navarro led the winners with 14 points apiece, Jaka Lakovic added 13, Roger Grimau 12 and Fran Vazquez had 10. For Cibona, Bojan Bogdanovic excelled with 28 points, Leon Radosevic followed with 15 points and 9 rebounds and Rok Stipcevic bagged 12.

Bogdan Bogdanovic needed a few seconds to open the score for Cibona, and he soon added a new one for a 0-4 opening run. Captain Roger Grimau opened the score for the reigning champs and Fran Vazquez soon slammed the offensive board to make up for Drago Pasalic's basket and a 4-6. Juan Carlos Navarro soon tied the game at 6-6 with a rainbow shot. Barca closed its defense now but two consecutive Cibona steals with no prize in the end kept the score still. Three minutes went by with no points until the first timeout stopped the game looking for solutions. It had to be Ricky Rubio with the first three of the night the one to break the balance for 9-6 and less than 4 minutes to go in the quarter. That seem to get Barca unstuck as Terence Morris soon found a layup that forced Cibona's timeout this time around. Leon Radosevic added points for Cibona but Vazquez copied him to keep the hosts ahead. Cibona was never afraid and tried to run when possible, but four straight points by Erazem Lorbek made it 17-12 to put an end of the first quarter.

Poor decisions in offense for both sides were stopped by Navarro's new layup to make it 19-12 for Barcelona. Soon enough Navarro found Jaka Lakovic for an open three that forced a new timeout for a Cibona that was still scoreless in the quarter, 22-12. Bogdanovic took matters on his own hands driving for a layup and in the next play, a couple of good moves inside proved productive for Radosevic to draw Boni N'Dong's first foul, but Lakovic sneaked into the lane on the other side for the 24-15. Cibona's inexperience showed in a couple unforced turnovers and Navarro took advantage of that to make it a double-digit lead for the first time at 26-15. A nice birthday present arrived for Rubio when he stole and ran for the break making it a basket plus foul for the 29-15. Rubio then fed Grimau for an easy layup to enlarge the run to 9-0, while Cibona tried to stay calm and play with clear ideas. Bogdanovic finally managed to keep adding points for the guests and then Rok Stpicevic used his bag of tricks for a nifty three-point play making it 33-20. It looked like Barca always scored when it pushed hard in offense and as such pulled a last basket in the half to make it 35-20 at the break.

Vazquez opened the second half for Barcelona with free throws, and Morris soon added a clean jumper to make it 39-20. Bogdanovic also scored twice from the line for Cibona but with a patient ball circulation, Navarro found a three to enlarge the lead a little more, which finally reached the 20 points when Navarro fed a huge alley-oop to Vazquez for 44-24. A new timeout fell on Cibona's side as the third quarter run escalated to 14-4 after Navarros's new three -pointer. After a few attempts in the same play, Radosevic finally managed to add more points in the Cibona column, and Marcus Johnson soon joined in for his first points of the night. When Bogdanovic hit a free throw for his three-point play and 15 points, it looked like Cibona was back to life, but Lakovic erased the smile from the guests' faces with his new three and a 54-31. Bogdanovic was absolutely on fire hitting five more points in a row making it a total of 20 for him out of the 36 Cibona points at that moment. Bogdanovic and Mario Delas trimmed the deficit below the 20-point mark, 54-39, until Bogdanovic scored again for the 56-41 that put an end to the third period.

Lorbek opened the last period with a three to leave no room for hope to Cibona. The run escalated to 9-0 when Navarro, Grimau and Rubio joined in, forcing a new Cibona timeout with a 65-41 Cibona edge on the scoreboard. Stipcevic had a 0-4 run on his own to allow Cibona to add points to its column after the start of the last period. Bogdanovic and Ricky kept trading baskets, and then Radosevic stepped up for a 0-5 of his own as the deficit was trimmed down to 71-57 with 3:30 to go. Lakovic put things back in place with his third triple of the night and when Grimau joined him after a new Cibona turnover, the game outcome was sealed. It was then that coach Xavi Pascual allowed young Angel Aparicio make his Euroleague debut in the last 100 seconds of a game that was the first step on Regal FC Barcelona's attempt to revalidate the European crown.

Thursday, October 21, 2010
Euroleague.net
No results found.
Referees: SUTULOVIC, ZORAN; LOTTERMOSER, ROBERT; GELLER, RENAUD
Attendance: 4157 (Tentative)
By Quarter1234
Regal Barcelona17182124
Cibona Zagreb1282125
End of Quarter1234
Regal Barcelona17355680
Cibona Zagreb12204166
Regal Barcelona
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
8 SADA, VICTOR 16:27     0/1   1 3 4 1 3 3     2 1 3
9 RUBIO, RICKY 24:21 14 3/3 1/2 5/5   6 6 3 3 4     1 5 25
10 LAKOVIC, JAKA 18:50 13 2/4 3/4         1   1     1 2 11
11 NAVARRO, JUAN CARLOS 26:00 14 4/6 2/6     2 2 4   1     3 2 12
13 PEROVIC, KOSTA 14:33 2 0/1   2/6   3 3   2       3 3 2
17 VAZQUEZ, FRAN 21:11 10 4/6   2/2 4 3 7 3   1 1   1 1 18
19 APARICIO, ANGEL 1:45   0/1               1       1 -1
21 NDONG, BONIFACE 3:49   0/1               1     2   -4
23 MORRIS, TERENCE 26:54 6 3/3 0/3   1 5 6 1 1 4 3       10
25 LORBEK, ERAZEM 16:10 9 3/5 1/1   1   1     2     1 1 6
44 GRIMAU, ROGER 30:00 12 6/8 0/3     2 2 1 2       3   9
Team             1 1               1
Totals 200:00 80 25/38 7/20 9/13 7 25 32 14 11 18 4 0 17 16 92
        65.8% 35% 69.2%
Head coach: PASCUAL, XAVI
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Cibona Zagreb
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
5 JOHNSON, MARCUS 28:04 2 1/7     1 3 4   3 2   1 1 1  
6 STIPCEVIC, ROK 35:17 12 4/9 1/5 1/1 1 4 5 7 1 1     1 2 16
7 BOGDANOVIC, BOJAN 37:14 28 8/16 3/7 3/3 2 1 3   2 5   1 3 5 17
8 BRNAS, TONI DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
15 ZUBCIC, TOMISLAV 1:26           1 1   1 1         1
21 PASALIC, DRAGO 21:53 4 1/4 0/1 2/2 1 1 2     3   2 2 1 -4
24 VRAGOVIC, KARLO 4:43                   2     2   -4
25 FILIPOVIC, MARIO DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
32 VRBANC, GORAN 13:16 3   1/1     1 1 1 1 3       1 4
43 RADOSEVIC, LEON 35:16 15 5/10   5/7 3 6 9 1 5 1     4 6 24
50 DELAS, MARIO 22:51 2 1/2 0/1   3 2 5     2     3 1 1
Team           2 1 3               3
Totals 200:00 66 20/48 5/15 11/13 13 20 33 9 13 20 0 4 16 17 58
        41.7% 33.3% 84.6%
Head coach: RADULOVIC, ZDRAVKO

Head Coaches

PASCUAL, XAVI
Regal Barcelona
"I am happy, above all, because of this win right at the start of the competition. I am not that happy about the way we played. We did very well in the first half, but when we got a 25-point lead, my players relaxed a bit and Cibona managed to trim the deficit. We tried to use Terence Morris at small forward because Juan Carlos Navarro picked up three quick fouls. Sometimes you need to do such things, to look for answers right away. I hope I can have Gianluca Basile back in the team next Thursday. We still have to wait and see on Pete Mickeal."
RADULOVIC, ZDRAVKO
Cibona Zagreb
"We started the game respecting Barcelona way too much, almost being afraid of them. I understand my players, however, as our age averaged is barely 21 this season. We played better in the second half, showing we have perspective and a nice future. I cannot blame my players for anything, I believe in them a lot because they are working hard in a financial situation that is far from being normal. We have a short roster, with two players out."

Players

LORBEK, ERAZEM
Regal Barcelona
"This win was not as easy as it looked. Cibona showed it is a talented team and it will be a tough opponent in their home court. We won because of our great first half, in which we dominated outside and inside. We played especially well in defense in the second quarter. We relaxed a bit in the second half, but won the game and that is what always matters."
RUBIO, RICKY
Regal Barcelona
"It was our first win this season. At first we didn't know a lot about this new Cibona full of young players, and when they started strong, we could stop them with good defense so they never pulled away. After that we started to click in offense and managed to control the situation, despite relaxing a little bit in the second half. I am also happy for my personal performance, but in the sense that it helped the team win this game."
STIPCEVIC, ROK
Cibona Zagreb
"We came to give our best against the Euroleague champion and I think we managed to do it. We have a very young team, with some of the best Croatian players in their age groups and that is our future. We lack experience, of course, and committed 20 turnovers. You cannot expect to beat Barcelona on the road with 20 turnovers, but we must keep working hard. If we do that, good results will come."
No results found.