Sanatura 58 Barva 69

Every game against the defending champ Barva had gone down to the wire, except for this one. With three losses in the Torneo de Clausura, Barva found itself in an unfamiliar place in third place in the standings heading towards the playoffs. This is the lowest they have been seeded in nine years. Going into Tuesday night's game, you could sense the urgency from Barva to get back to their winning ways.


Our team has been coasting all Torneo de Clausura.  The good thing about Apertura is that it guarantees you a spot in the Finals. The bad thing about Apertura is that it guarantees you a spot in the Finals. There's a natural tendency to relax after winning, and that's where I think our team has been this whole Clausura tournament after winning Apertura. A little too happy with itself. We lack that urgency.

So with those two mindsets, the two teams took the court on Tuesday night. Barring an unforeseen result, this game has little bearing on the standings. However, it was an important game in terms of setting the mood for a semi-final showdown against Barva. Both teams were dealing with injuries: Cristian Chavarria and Henry Martinez were out for our side, while Barva was down Charles Plummer and Jeffrey Spencer.

We broke out to a small lead early in the first quarter and looked to be in good shape against a big Barva lineup. Then the turnovers started coming in. Four turnovers in five possessions let Barva flip the score from a five point deficit to a four point lead, a lead they wouldn't relinquish all night. The first quarter ended 22-17.

Our offense struggled all night. Michael had a very tough night, tallying an incredible 12 turnovers. The refs were calling his first step a travel all night (something they seemed to ignore the rest of the season), and Michael did a terrible job of adjusting to the refereeing. The travel in our league is such a bail-out call for the refs. They'd rather call the travel than the foul on obvious contact. To compound the turnovers, we went ahead and had our worst free throw shooting night of the year shooting a paltry 58%, which is a luxury you can't afford in these games.

Barva maintained a five point lead in the second quarter, stretching it out at times and then we would claw back. We missed an opportunity to capitalize on an intentional foul by Harold Mitchell on David Carnegie by only scoring two points. We rolled the dice and waited to put in our sub-21 player, Jose Pablo Echeverria, later than usual, which meant that we would have to play him for pretty much the entire third quarter. Barva stretched out the lead to nine points in the third quarter and never looked back. Our ineffective offense never challenged again. To make matters worse, we started giving up offensive boards to Barva in the final quarter, snuffing any chance to make a rally.

Game Notes

• Michael was very close to racking up a rare triple double, only it's the type of triple double you don't want with 11 points, 7 boards and 12 turnovers. Easily Michael's worst game this year. We'll see how he rebounds from this poor showing.
• David Carnegie led our side with 17 points and 8 boards, though he had a cold night from the free throw line going 6 for 12. Dave Millinier chipped in 13 points
• Isaac St Rose led Barva with 20 points and did a great defensive job on Michael all night. Amir Alvarado had a double double with 12 points and ten rebounds.