UCAM Murcia leads wire-to-wire to beat Fuenlabrada

UCAM Murcia led from start to finish en route to an 87-75 win over visiting Montakit Fuenlabrada in an all-Spanish duel on Wednesday night. Murcia scored the first 14 points of the game and never looked back. Murcia had a better ball movement with 20 assists to the visitors’ 12, and the hosts controlled the boards with a 27 to 21 advantage on the glass. Facundo Campazzo energized the hosts with 18 points and 9 assists. Billy Baron netted 17 points, Vitor Faverani scored 16 and Vitor Benite finished with 10 in victory. The visitors had Ivan Paunic lead the way with 22 points and Blagota Sekulic scored 12 in defeat.

Campazzo hit a three-pointer before dishing 3 assists for Baron, who scored 7 points and put Murcia up 14-0. Paunic hit a three to get Fuenlabrada going, and Luka Rupnik’s three-pointer helped cut the margin to 22-10 at the end of the first quarter. Nemanja Radovic helped extend the margin to 28-12, but Sekulic and Ludde Hakanson with a triple cut it to 32-24. The visitors proceeded to cut the lead to 6 points and Murcia went in to halftime up 38-31. Sekulic and Paunic cut the deficit some more early in the third, but consecutive threes from Benite restored a double digit margin, 46-34. Campazzo and Faverani scored 7 points each before the end of the quarter and Baron hit a triple to make it 64-49 going into the final 10 minutes. Paunic and David Wear hit threes for the visitors, but Faverani and Baron kept Murcia with a double-digit advantage. Fuenlabrada had its last attempt to rally when Marko Popovic’s three and a fastbreak basket by Wear cut it to 70-62, but the hosts never allowed the lead to get below 8 points the rest of the way.