The Fundación CB Canarias faces two days with less than 24 hours apart, both at home, coinciding with their visits to BAXI Manresa (Nou Congost, today at 12:30) and on Saturday, to the current leader of the U22 League, Barça Athlétic (Ciudad Deportiva Joan Gamper, 11:00).
Maximum demand for Ronald Cómez's group, which will try to defend its privileged position in the table (the Aurinegros are third, with a balance of 6/2) against two rivals with a lot of talent in their ranks.
The first challenge for the Tenerife team will be against Manresa, which is fifth, with a balance of 3/5 and which has just won the Catalan rivalry duel against Joventut de Badalona (79-77). Led by Nacho Juan, Pablo Laso's former assistant at Bayern Munich and Baskonia, Bagés' team has a roster with several players already trained last year in the Tercera FEB.
The debut in the category two days ago of the point guard Max Gaspá, who is in dynamic with the first team (he already played for Santiago Martín in the Endesa League), as well as of the point guard Gerard Fernández, almost unheard of until recently due to an injury, after having done the preseason with the professional team (a three-pointer of his from midfield gave his team the victory against Hiopos Lleida of ACB, in the summer), has translated into an important leap in quality for the manresanos.
In fact, the Catalans have accumulated two consecutive wins since their debut with the reserve team, the aforementioned against Penya and the visit just before to Unicaja Alhaurín de la Torre (85-80).
BAXI already sold dearly its defeat in the first round (87-79) and, in fact, came to enjoy a +17 advantage on its visit to the Island. The 2007 forward, Guillem Naspler, European U 18 champion this summer with Spain; the former Barça Ferrán Torreblanca and Jan Pumarola; the Norwegian tower of 2.11 Ludvik Bergseng; or the outsider Lucas Sánchez are just a sample of the aspects that the Aurinegros will have to counter.
Tomorrow, against the leader
Almost out of breath, Ronald Cómez's men will visit Barça Atlétic tomorrow, whom they were able to beat at the Santiago Martín (81-76). That was the only game that Álvaro Salinas' team have lost, having just beaten Real Madrid at home last Friday (69-93), with a performance by Cameroonian Jojo Boumtje Boumtje (8/11 in triples).
A highly demanding event against a very physical opponent, who has high quality players in their ranks. Serbian Nikola Kusturika, who has already made his debut with the first team and was the MVP of the last Eurobasket U 16; the player from Burkina Faso, Mohamed Dabone, one of the media sensations of the category and a great project for the Barça base; the Senegalese Sayon Keita; The players from Mali, Abdraham Kone and Mohamed Keita, will be some of the factors to minimize, in addition to having to overcome the logical physical effort of facing two such complex outings just 24 hours apart. n
Via: The Day – The Opinion of Tenerife
