Barca put on defensive clinic to down Tenerife on Dante Exum's ACB debut / News - Basketnews.com

FC Barcelona (11-2) held off hosts Lenovo Tenerife (8-5) 75-60 (15-14, 12-19, 18-20, 15-22).

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The team coached by Sarunas Jasikevicius faced some hardship only in the first quarter before taking another comfortable ACB win.

The clash came less than 48 hours after Barca's home showdown against Real Madrid. Newly signed Dante Exum was a starter on his debut, finishing with 8 points, 3 rebounds and as many turnovers.

In last Friday's "clasico", the Aussie wing was eased into the rotation, only playing 13 minutes in his first game. He finished with just two points on two shots, also grabbing two rebounds and dishing out one assist.

Giorgi Shermadini scored 17, but grabbed only one rebound and dished a single assist for Tenerife who went 4/25 from downtown.

Alex Abrines, Nick Calathes and Cory Higgins were unavailable for the Catalan side due to injury.

In the second quarter, the two teams were close until the 15-minute mark (20-22), at which time a 2 + 1 from Exum and two baskets from Nigel Hayes and Sertac Sanli catapulted the Catalans on the scoreboard (22-31).

When Tenerife tried to come back, Nikola Mirotic produced five points in a row, giving his team a double-digit lead. The Spanish-Montenegrin forward logged 18 points and 6 rebounds.

Bruno Fitipaldo helped Txus Vidorreta's side to cut down the deficit (43-48) but Mirotic soon re-emerged with 5 straight points to call game for Barca.

Lenovo Tenerife: Giorgi Shermadini 17 (5/5 FG, 7/7 FT, 1 REB, 1 AST), Bruno Fitipaldo 10 (3/14 FG, 3/3 FT, 3 AST), Marcelinho Huertas 8 (2 AST).

FC Barcelona: Nikola Mirotic 18 (5/10 FG, 6/6 FT, 6 REB, 2 AST), Nigel Hayes 14 (6/11 FG, 5 REB), Rokas Jokubaitis 9 (3 AST), Dante Exum 8 (2/2 FG, 4/4 FT, 3 REB, 1 AST, 3 TO).

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