UCAM and Gran Canaria face off again at the Palace after the duel in which Rojas was penalized with an unsportsmanlike foul after a play that ended in a shock to Slaughter
Few matches in the Endesa League at the moment can reach the spiciness that the duels between UCAM and Gran Canaria generate, saving football classics and clashes of geographical privacy. Today’s duel between Murcia and Gran Canaria is one of morbid, very morbid. Especially after what happened during the last confrontation between the two, which took place on the same floor that is the scene today on April 10, in what was last season’s 28th round of the Endesa League, one in which the two teams aimed to be one of the last ‘playoff’ tickets months after the same race for the Copa del Rey.
That day Sadiel Rojas, a usual suspect throughout his career, was clearly marked. At some point in the third quarter, the university captain ended his team’s quick break with a basket play and a foul from Diop (Khalifa, not Ilimane), and as he fell to the ground, he dropped his arm loose in too strong a movement. away from AJ Slaughter, another player who chased after him and fell next to him. On the ground, as both stabilized, Rojas hit the yellow outside again. The Canarian team jumped like a feather and asked for justice.
While Slaughter, who was playing a face mask due to a previous nose injury, was sprawled on the floor with a cut on his cheekbone and obvious signs of dizziness, the officials judged the action. Unsportsmanlike foul on the red team’s 27. It was not the most severe punishment possible, as the unsportsmanlike nature allows a player (unless he commits another offense of this category or a technique) to continue to serve his team until he reaches five personal numbers or finishes the match, and nothing else was collected in the report. Rojas continued to play, as did Slaughter, after moving through the locker room. “No one is ashamed, everyone looks the other way, bah. And there will be an accident and there will be those responsible,” were the words in which Willy Villar, sports director of Gran Canaria, expressed himself on Twitter.
Gran Canaria would not be happy after the game, which ended with a local victory (86-75). The next day he would report that the player pulled out of practice due to a concussion. At the same time, he sued Sadiel Rojas before the competition commission of the Endesa League, which would penalize Rojas for two games starting this season.
Despite the fact that both players had been in contact to close the matter sportingly, the route to be followed on the return journey to Las Palmas seems to have changed. Slaughter himself would post on his Instagram ‘stories’ (ephemeral content that disappears 24 hours after publication) WhatsApp conversations with supposed former teammates of Rojas at UCAM, who warned him about the player, and other members of the League Endesa they are talking about had the same.
Sito Alonso tried to deal with purely sporting matters, despite the fact that the others will be present in a stand where several of their supporters’ clubs will arrive after a shared meal. the Girona match, player recovering, as “we tried to recover players who had a significant minute overload”.
Physical fitness to face a Gran Canaria that, with the exception of their debacle last week against Baskonia (68-96), is having a very good season where they are in sixth place with seven wins and four losses. “We have to try so that the rival thinks about us more than we think about them,” says Sito, who expects a game “with a lot of rhythm and intensity on our part” so as to be “a little bit happier”. on the bench.” Ingredients your team needs to not fall back into the bad staging of the previous day.
As if the game had little incentive, it is also a very special one for two UCAM players who shared a dressing room in Gran Canaria last year, Artem Pustovyi and Ilimane Diop. Neither performed at a high level on the island and left through the back door of a club that demanded a significant salary cut for its continuity with an ongoing contract.
Both were looking for a boost for their careers in Gran Canaria after losing minutes. Pustovyi, after three seasons of more exclusion than notoriety at Barca, emerged with a league title, two cups and a second-place finish in the Euroleague. Diop, after a lifetime with Baskonia, of which he had become captain and with whom he reached the Spanish team. For the Spanish-Senegalese, the campaign was mostly negative, with many games without games and a difficult adjustment to the power forward position. “It must be a special match for both of them. Especially for Ilimane,” Sito encouraged at a press conference.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
