Kyle Kuric’s hat-trick in Tenerife still rings out like a scream that won’t go out. Not so much for the technical gesture – which is also – but for everything it holds. MoraBanc added its eighth triumph with a major performance from the American -23 points, five three-pointers and 17 in an incandescent last quarter – but the reading cannot stay in the epic. It’s a hangover win, of those that relieve but do not completely release, because the tricolor team is still in relegation places.
The MoraBanc players celebrate with Kyle Kuric the triple victory in Tenerife.
With the victory in Tenerife there was a moment of decompression in the dressing rooma short, almost clandestine sigh. Faith, resilience and the feeling that resisting makes sense. But also the lucidity that the triumph did not change the scene: it was just that, a victory. One more in a war for the survival that remains open and that, now, has more fighters. “It was a victory that we needed a lot in this fight to stay,” admitted Kuricwithout excess, placing its triple within a collective narrative. “The most important thing is the work of the team”, commented al diary
“We can’t allow ourselves to feel relief, neither when we lose nor when we win. Now we have to keep going”
The ranking remains raw: MoraBanc remains in the well, despite being just one win away from getting out of it. And the context has become even more tense, since the victory of San Pablo Burgos against Hiopos Lleida has compressed the lower part until turning it into a river full of teams dragged by the same current. Surviving, now, is also a matter of company with Lleida, Zaragoza, Burgos, Gran Canaria and Granada. Rafa Luz verbalized it naturally, avoiding any euphoria. “It’s just a win. We lost last week and nothing has changed.” The base puts the focus where it belongs: on continuity. “There are five games left, five finals, and we have it in our hands.” No calculations, no looking too far.
“It was a victory that we really needed to stay in this fight”
New tight end
Because if the triumph in Tenerife brought air, it also confirms a disturbing trend: six games decided on the limit, six finals head-to-head. Three wins – Zaragoza, Girona and Tenerife – and three defeats – Breogán, Bilbao and Granada –. A balance that it keeps the team alive, but exposes it too often to the fragility of detail. Too many games in one possession, too much reliance on the moment, too much unnecessary risk. Zan Tabak assumes it with an almost surgical speech. “There are games that we lose with the last shot and others that we win with the last shot.” The coin flips, but the pattern repeats itself and that’s why he insists: “We cannot afford relief”. Not when you win, not when you lose. And it’s not an empty sentence, because it is the Tenerife match had gone the other way, MoraBanc would have been on the ropesmuch more exposed, almost without margin. Winning allows you to continue in this intermediate situation: not out of danger, but with stable vital signs, like a patient who remains in the ICU but resists.
“It’s just a victory and now we don’t have to trust ourselves, that this league is very treacherous”
Rafa Luz sums it up with an idea that crosses the dressing room: “We don’t have to trust each other. This league is very treacherous.” And it is. Other people’s results don’t always help, calendars cross and any relaxation is paid for. There are five finals and three are at home.
