Real Madrid crushed Spirou Charleroi 94-45

Real Madrid romped to the biggest blowout of the season and the sixth-biggest in the past 10 seasons by crushing Spirou Basket 94-45 at Caja Magica in the Spanish capital on Thursday night. Madrid thoroughly dominated from start to finish, particularly in the paint, shooting 80.7% inside, outrebounding the visitors 50-22 and rejecting 7 shots, while not having any of its own blocked. Madrid took a double-digit lead in the first quarter and outscored Charleroi in each of the following three quarters, capping the domination with a 26-4 fourth-quarter. Rookie Nikola Mirotic paced the winners with a career-high 19 points in 21 minutes. D’Or Fischer stood out with 12 points, 11 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 blocks, Sergio Rodriguez scored 12 and dished 5 assists and Novica Velickovic added 10 boards. Madrid improved to 6-4 with the win and finished in second place in Group B. The Belgian champs dropped to 3-7 and ranked last in the group. Dwayne Broyles scored 12 off the bench and Daniel Santiago added 9 for Charleroi in defeat.

Santiago put the visitors on the scoreboard first and after Jorge Garbojosa countered, former Madrid player Justin Hamilton made it 2-4. But Madrid soon took control as Sergio Llull scored 5 points to push the hosts to 9-4. Brent Wright kept Spirou close at 11-8, though Fischer was about to take over. The center scored 6 straight points – including a pair of thundering dunks – as the hosts took a double-digit lead. Free throws and a layup by Demond Mallet changed little as Carlos Suarez stepped up with a triple. Brian Greene and Broyles’s baskets were matched by Clay Tucker and Velickovic as the hosts zoomed to 29-16 after 10 minutes.

Broyles drained a three hoping to ignite his team early in the second half. The Spirou defense also started to make an impact. But the visitors were unable to score and when Madrid finally got rolling through Mirotic, the hosts climbed to an 18-point lead. Broyles connected from downtown and Santiago made it 37-24, but the Madrid backcourt – with points coming from Pablo Prigioni, Llull and Sergio Rodriguez – kept pushing the hosts en route to a 46-29 halftime lead.

A Broyles dunk showed signs of life for the visitors at the start of the second half. After Carlos Suarez basket, Mallet hit twice from the line. But soon Madrid was off and running again. Rodriguez scored and then dished to Garbajosa for a triple that pushed the lead to 20. Greene made a three for the visitors, but Rodriguez continued the romp, taking the cushion to 61-36. Velickovic added a three to take the lead to 29, but Greene and Joseph Gomis kept the score a somewhat respectable 68-41 through three quarters.

With the result essentially wrapped up, head coach Ettore Messina gave Mirotic the fourth quarter to shine. He started with 2 free throws and watched as Prigioni and Llull teamed for two more baskets and a 30+ lead. After Broyles scored, Madrid continued to cruise. Mirotic scored from the line and in the paint, Fischer on the offensive glass and the Mirotic added some more as the game grew out of hand. The final minutes were a one-sided affair as Mirotic could not be stopped and the fans enjoyed their team’s stroll for a big win.