Manuchar Markoishvili, one of the leaders of Georgian national basketball team and Italian “Mapooro Cantu”, played perfectly in the 9th round of Euroleague and played a key role in the victory against “Real” Madrid. “Cantu” won 76:70. The Georgian guard earned 23 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 block-shots. He became the best player of the game.
The Italian club needed only victory to go through to Top 16. “Mapooro Cantu” advanced 13:1 against the “Royal Club”.
Soon “Real” improved playing and the Italians had no advantage anymore. Jaycee Carroll was a main organizer of the “Real” offences. He earned 24 points.
As for Markoishvili, he was very active and of course, made many mistakes. The Georgian basketball player played for 34:18 minutes. He scored 3 from 12 2 points, 3 from 5 3 points and all 8 free throws. He lost the ball five times, received 3 personal fouls and 7 fouls were committed against him.
Jonathan Tabu also helped “Manu”. The Belgian earned 14 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. With the help of Tabu and Maarty Leunen, “Cantu” gained advantage (11 points) at the last seconds.
“Mapooro Cantu” has 6 failures and 3 victories. The team is not in the last place in Group A anymore. The team has a chance to get in Top 4. Two things must happen for it: “Fenerbahce” Istanbul must lose to “Panathinaikos” Athens in today’s game. In the last round on December 13 “Cantu” must beat “Fenerbahce” in Turkey.
Unlike the club of Markoishvili, “Maccabi” of Giorgi Shermadini has nothing to worry about. “Maccabi” celebrated the 7th victory in Group B and is leading with Spanish “Unicaja”.
It is interesting that “Maccabi” was losing to Polish “Prokom” with 5 points before the last quarter but in the last quarter they beat the hosts 29:8 (!) and finally won the game 89:73.
Unfortunately, Shermadini was not given much time for play. The Georgian center played for 4:30 minutes. Giorgi scored 1 from 2 free throws. He earned one rebound and one block-shot. Giorgi received one personal foul.
“Montepaschi” Siena of Viktor Sanikidze will hold the 9th round game today. The Italian champion has guaranteed going through to the next round. “Montepaschi” has 5 victories and 3 failures. The team is in the 3rd place in Group B.
P.S. Coefficient of Markoishvili was 23 which nobody had in the 9th round. Perhaps, the Georgian basketball player will become MVP of the round.
Dato Manjavidze
