ESP - Champs Unicaja lose to Madrid; Girona, Fuenlabrada prevail

MADRID (ACB) - Real Madrid landed an early blow in their bid to return to the top in Spain’s ACB by destroying defending champions Unicaja Malaga 85-56 on Saturday.

The other two games were nailbiters, with Akasvayu Girona edging Grupo Capitol Valladolid and Alta Gestión Fuenlabrada going to overtime to beat CB Granada.

With three starters, including Spanish superstar Jorge Garbajosa, no longer in the fold, Unicaja boss Sergio Scariolo admitted before tip-off it will take time for the team to find its rhythm and that was borne out at the Vistalegre in the nation’s capital.

Real Madrid led 21-19 midway through second quarter when they went on a 20-4 run to grab a stranglehold on the contest.

A pair of Spain’s gold-medal winning heroes from this summer’s FIBA World Championship put them on their way.

Alex Mumbrú, who has joined from EuroCup champions DKV Joventut, made a pair of free throws and after Felipe Reyes split two from the line, Mumbrú stole the ball from Unicaja’s Hungarian center Robert Gulyas and dunked for a 26-19 lead.

Kostas Vasileiadis buried a three-pointer, but Reyes, who played so well in Pau Gasol’s absence for Spain in the world title win over Greece in Japan, sank two free throws to spark an 11-0 run and Unicaja never recovered.

Vasileiadis led all scorers with 16 points, while Louis Bullock had 14 for Madrid. Four others finished in double figures for Madrid, who were eight of 19 (42%) from three-point range and 13 of 14 (92%) from the line

Spain captain Carlos Jiménez played his first league game with Unicaja and finished with nine points and seven rebounds

Unicaja were a woeful eight of 21 (38%) from the free throw line and also committed 19 turnovers.

There were just under 10,000 spectators at the Vistalegre to watch

More than 5,000 turned out to watch AKASVAYU Girona win a 75-74 thriller at Grupo Capitol Valladolid.

San Emeterio’s three-pointer midway through the fourth quarter put Svetislav Pesic’s team into a 58-55 lead and they stayed in front the rest of the way.

Valladolid did keep it close until the end, however, with a Bud Ely scoring two of his game-high 24 points to bring the hosts to within 73-71 with five seconds remaining.

They fouled Marko Marinovic, but the Serbian made both to seal victory.

Joseph Gomis’ shot from the arc for Valladolid left Girona with a one-point win.
Marinovic paced the winners with 20.

Marc Gasol, the Spain international who joined Girona from Winterthur Barcelona this summer, played 14 minutes and finished with three points and four rebounds.

In the other game on opening day, Alta Gestión Fuenlabrada needed overtime to beat CB Granada, 95-90.

Samo Udrih’s three-pointer with 15 seconds remaining tied the game at 82-82.

Andrés Miso missed a shot from the arc that would have given Fuenlabrada victory, and the game went to the extra period.

César Sanmartín’s three put Granada into a 90-87 advantage with just over a minute remaining in the overtime.

Salva Guardia made two free throws, and after Udrih missed for Granada, Gerald Brown scored to put the hosts in front to stay.

After Juan Gutiérrez was off target for the visitors, Miso made the first but missed the second of two free throws.

Saul Blanco grabbed the offensive rebound, and was fouled.

He made the first but missed the second for a 93-90, but again Granada failed to box out Blanco and he followed up his shot for a five-point triumph.

Lithuanian Virginijus Praskevicius paced the winners with 18 points while Miso weighted in with 17.

Granada’s Curtis Borchardt poured in 20 to lead all scorers.

By Jeff Taylor, PA Sport Exclusively for FIBA