The Murcians need to win again away from home to maintain the good feeling of Tuesday’s Champions League in the Endesa League
There are eight times in a row that UCAM have returned victorious from their trips to Seville to face Betis in San Pablo, the favorite pavilion of the Murcians in the Endesa League far from the palace. Streak, this, which, moreover, has brought more than one sizeable victory, as the eight wins in a row have been given by an average advantage of 17.1 points on average in a chain that has its first link in the 2012-2013 season, and that their annual tenures have only been broken in the 2018-2019 seasons, when Betis took part in the LEB Oro, and in 2019-20, when the pandemic cut the regular season short before Sito Alonso’s team had time to travel to the Andalusian capital.
This exceptional status as a visitor to Seville is one that UCAM are very interested in retaining this season, where outside Murcia it struggles to find a level comparable to that of the best days at the Palace as it at this time it only won three games away from home. The last, two weeks ago in Fuenlabrada, a team still entrenched in last position.
This qualifying danger is one shared by Betis, who survive out of the relegation places but could return the same day if UCAM San Pablo once again makes its playground and Manresa and/or Fuenlabrada (directed by Óscar Quintana since last week) come out as winners of their games because, like the Betis, they only have three wins.
The Betis that UCAM faces this afternoon is very different from the one that started the season. One of the sensations of last and current season, the compulsive goalscorer of an exciting and reinvented point guard position Shannon Evans, has recently seen his long-standing ambition to compete in the Euroleague become a reality with his transfer to Valencia Basket, making leaving his team an orphan of the Endesa League player who had the biggest impact on his team’s future as Evans is the leader in points (19), rating (19.5), recoveries (1.8 ), offenses received (5.7) and minutes played per game (30). In the top five statistical categories in the second best league in the world.
To straighten out the course of a (again) failed season on the banks of the Guadalquivir and at the same time feel that they are entering the reinvention process with guarantees without Evans in the team, Betis this week presented four new faces: Tyson Perez , Jean Montero, Josh Gray and Zsombor Maronka. Also, Txemi Urtasun made his debut with the team two days ago.
Two games, the one in which Pérez already played as Verdiblanco. Once one of the most coveted men in the Endesa League, serious injuries, Andorra’s relegation and Manresa’s misstep have forced the player to look for a springboard clad in verdiblanco. And the level shown is very important to take into account: 38 points, 18 rebounds and a PIR of 44 between the two games. Gray and Maronka also made their debut last week, and Montero, a young 19-year-old Dominican who was hired from Gran Canaria and already has experience with his national team internationally and in the Overtime Elite, where promising Murcian Izan Almansa will train, will do this against UCAM. .
The UCAM will arrive in São Paulo within a week, enough to raise optimism. Tuesday’s key premature match against Bilbao, against their Champions League quarter-final options, was brilliantly resolved (90-72) in Artem Pustovyi’s best game as a UCAM player, with 23 points and 31 PIR in just 17 minutes.
This version of the Ukrainian, especially when he is a player trying to feed balls, is one of the versions Sito Alonso’s team needs most in more regular doses. Because if UCAM’s path is irregular this season, it’s because it’s the players who are called to make a difference. Anderson, Trice, or Davis, the following calls to fit the college puzzle without new dispersions.
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.
