Heading to the Pyrenees. The route of Unicaja’s home games continues, which will travel to visit the MoraBanc Andorra field this Sunday (5:00 p.m., broadcast on Movistar Deportes 3 -dial 65- and ⇒Unicaja Basketball Radiolive from Le Grand Café Centro). This duel will be the fourth consecutive away game for the Malaga team, 3 in the Endesa League and 1 in the BCL.
In this series of matches away from Malaga due to the Davis Cup tennis tournament being held at the Martín Carpena, Ibon Navarro’s team has a record of 2 wins and 1 loss. In this fourth consecutive outing, Unicaja will seek to win in Andorra to continue as leader of the Endesa League.
Morabanc Andorra, readjusting with the league’s top scorer as the leader
Unicaja’s next rival, MoraBanc Andorra, is in 11th position in the Endesa League standings, with a balance of three wins and four losses. The Andorran team is going through some difficult times marked by injuries and reaches this matchday 8 after having fallen in its last two duels, against Hiopos Lleida (80-70) and UCAM Murcia (71-83), so they will seek right the ship with the support of your audience. At the moment, Morabanc Andorra’s home record is 2 wins and 2 losses.
The team from the Principality led by Natxo Lezkano for the third consecutive year, the coach who returned them to the Endesa League last year, is readjusting its game. After a good start, Morabanc Andorra has seen its good path cut short due to injuries to important players, which led to a final addition last week.
Morabanc Andorra’s injured players are center Ben Lammers (9 points, 6.6 rebounds -5th in the league- and 2.1 blocks -leader of the competition-), former Unicaja youth player Rafa Luz Freire (3.8 points , 5.2 assists -4th in the league-), Ferran Bassas (8.8 points, 3.6 assists) and Shannon Evans (10.3 points, 4.3 assists).
Faced with such a plague of injuries, with its 3 point guards absent, MoraBanc Andorra has recently incorporated Nikola Radicevic, who already made his debut the previous day against UCAM Murcia last day (10 points, one assist). The 30-year-old Serbian game director has extensive experience in our league, trained in the Real Betis youth team and having spent time, in addition to the Sevillian team, in Gran Canaria, Murcia and Bilbao. In the direction of the Andorran game, in recent games, the 20-year-old Andorran young man Aaron Ganal (2.7 points, 1.7 assists) has also taken a step forward, who after training in the Barça youth team is making his debut this year. in the elite in the team of his land.
As for Morabanc Andorra’s most notable players, Jerrick Harding is their main leader. The American player is, by far, the best scorer at the beginning of the season in the Endesa League, averaging 22.3 points per game, distancing himself from his closest pursuer, Dylan Ennis (18.6). In addition, Harding scores 6.1 shots of 2 per game, only behind Ante Tomic (6.2), capturing 2.7 rebounds, giving 1.7 assists and achieving 1 recovery on average for a 19.7 rating, the 4th most valued player in the competition.
The Andorran outside line also has veteran Kyle Kuric (10.7 points, 2 rebounds), Stan Okoye (4.9 points) and Chumi Ortega (3.1 points, 3.1 rebounds). In the Morabanc area Andorra has two young players who arrived this summer who are putting in good performances, the Frenchman Sekou Doumbouya (12 points, 5.7 rebounds, one recovery, 14 PIR), and the Greek Nikos Chougkaz (9 points, 5, 6 rebounds). Furthermore, two players who have already been in the Pyrenees for several seasons, Nacho Llovet (2.6 points, 2.4 rebounds) and the tall Felipe dos Anjos (2.1 points, 2.7 rebounds), will try not to be noticed the absence of the injured Lammers.
At a collective level, Morabanc Andorra is the statistical leader of the competition in blocks (4.43), third in total rebounds (35.57) and fourth in 2-point shots scored (21.14).
Historical balance
Unicaja and Morabanc Andorra have faced each other on a total of 27 occasions, with 20 victories for the Malaga team. Furthermore, visiting Andorra has not been especially bad for Unicaja, where they have managed to achieve 8 wins in 13 games (61.54% wins). In the last match that both teams played, Unicaja won 92 to 86 last season, a victory that Unicaja also added in the last visit to the Pavelló de Govern of Andorra (81-87).
⇒ALL PRECEDENTS
old friends
Sunday will be a day of reunions in Andorra on both sides. Tyson Pérez will once again face the team that was his team for three seasons and from which he made the jump to Unicaja. It will also be emotional for Ibon Navarro, who coached the Andorrans for three and a half seasons (2018-early 2022). On the local side, although he will not be able to play, Rafa Luz will be seen again with the team with which he debuted in the Endesa League.
Unicaja will face MoraBanc Andorra this Sunday, November 17, at the Pavelló de Govern at 5:00 p.m. The match, corresponding to Matchday 8 of the Endesa League, will be broadcast by Movistar Deportes 3 -dial 65- and ⇒Unicaja Basketball Radiolive from Le Grand Café Centro.
