Overwhelming entry in 2022 | Sporting Clube de Portugal official website
Basketball beats AA Coimbra with the most expressive victory of the time (115-65)
Sporting Clube de Portugal’s main basketball team made its debut in 2022 with a 115-65 victory over AA Coimbra, this Sunday, in the 14th round of the regular phase of the League.
Coming from a defeat in the Classic against FC Porto, the Lions disbanded at the João Rocha Pavilion to face the penultimate player in the table, already with Shakir Smith back to options, but done without the contribution of Micah Downs .
Luís Magalhães bet on an initial five composed by Travante Williams, Mike Fofana, João Fernandes, Shakir Smith and Tanner Omlid, a formation that saw the outsiders start better with an initial partial of 0-4. Despite the fact that Coimbra’s team was almost always ahead of the scoreboard throughout the first quarter, Sporting CP managed to get closer in the final moments and ended the opening ten minutes with a 15-15 draw.
The second quarter brought another good reply from the visitors, who again proved to be more assertive in pitching and withdrew some green and white turnovers to put themselves back in advantage (17-22). Even so, Leonina’s response was not expected and Tanner Omlid, with a triple, returned the lead to Sporting CP by 31-30. Thereafter, the advantage did not go away, with the post Daniel Relvão (16 points) being decisive for the 42-36 at half-time.
In the restart, the advantage gave greater tranquility to the home team, who became more effective when shooting and increased the pressure in defensive terms. On the other side, the opponent resented and saw the distance on the scoreboard increase, with João Fernandes in great evidence with several sinkings in style. Entering the last quarter, Sporting CP was winning by a comfortable 35 points, translated into 83-48.
In the final straight of the match, there was little or nothing to decide against the margin achieved by the Lions, who still did not take their foot off the accelerator. Diogo Ventura, with 12 points, and Travante Williams, the match’s top scorer with a total of 23 points, were the great figures of the National Champions in the final moments, guiding the remaining team to a clear difference of 50 points (115-65) , the most extensive in the entire season.
With this result, the Lions remain in the lead of the League, with 24 points, and return to the field on Wednesday, January 5th, in the derby at SL Benfica.
Sporting CP: Travante Williams (23), Mike Fofana (7), João Fernandes (13), Shakir Smith (12) and Tanner Omlid (11); Diogo Ventura [C] (18), Miguel Maria Cardoso (2), António Monteiro, Daniel Relvão (21), Diogo Araújo (2), Joshua Patton and Daniel Machado (6).