They’re breaking out the superlatives today over at the ACB’s official website, full in the afterglow of a weekend’s worth of mostly tight games or, as writer Malo de Molina put it, “¡Qué jornada!”
When the dust settled, Real Madrid (20-5) had beaten fourth-place Valencia (16-9) and wrested second place from slipping Caja Laboral Baskonia (20-5), who suffered a shocking 74-58 loss to no. 6 Asefa Estudiantes (13-12).
Cajasol (ranked 5th, 15-10) and giant-killers Gran Canaria 2014 (8th, 12-13) continued their upward trend with wins over Valladolid (10th, 11-14) and Suzuki Manresa (11th, 11-14), respectively. Xacobeo Blu:sens (17th, 8-17) and DKV Joventut (9th, 12-13) managed to snap losing streaks, the latter scoring its first win under coach Pepu Hernandez.
The big thrills, at least according to De Molina’s writeup, came in the Bizkaia Bilbao-CB Murcia (18th, 4-21) and Meridiano-Unicaja matches. Bizkaia (12th, 10-15) survived some serious embarrassment with a disputed play by Javi Salgado that had him traveling the entire length of the court and shooting over two defenders inside of 4.5 seconds. (The play leads the highlight clip.)
The upset *did* go down in Meridiano Alicante, where the 16th-ranked home team stunned the Euroleague team with a 69-68 victory. At 9-16, Meridiano is now one game ahead of Xacobeo and the relegation zone.
Oh yeah, Barcelona won. But only by seven!
More video highlights are available at the ACB’s official website.
