The livewire guard came off the bench in his first appearance in a month to sink his former club
Kevin Punter shot the lights out to lift Barcelona past Partizan
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Regular Season
Round 29 of 34
Group Regular Season
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FC Barcelona ground out a big 87-80 home win over Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague largely thanks to a vintage performance from Kevin Punter, who grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck to lead his team’s monster comeback.
The hosts looked in trouble throughout the first quarter as Partizan engineered a 10-point lead on three occasions, with the visitors dominating proceedings early on. That, however, was as good as it got for Partizan.
Punter, who was sidelined with a shoulder injury in mid-February, sank 17 first-half points as Barca stormed back to lead 54-41 at the interval. The livewire guard toyed with his markers and hit nothing but net from downtown, allowing the Spanish outfit to turn the tide for good.
In his postgame comments, Punter was totally down to earth as he praised his former club and stressed that he needed to keep up the good work in a bid to maintain the form he displayed in a vintage performance against the Serbian team.
“Credit to Partizan, they played hard, it was two teams battling for a playoff spot. I am glad we were able to come out on top and I am just trying to take it game by game now, I can’t afford to get overexcited,” the 31-year-old said.
Partizan was unable to profit from 18 offensive boards, having racked up 36 in total, as the visiting team missed a barrage of opportunities to score second chance points, allowing Barcelona to hold on to its lead in a rugged and physical fourth quarter.
Tomas Satoransky acknowledged that Barcelona produced a rollercoaster performance and not for the first time this term, adding that taking anything for granted in the home stretch of the regular season would be completely counterproductive.
“It was up and down and it’s happened to us a lot this season but we expected a physical game from them,” the Czech guard said. “It would be a mistake to look at the standings now as we’ve seen throughout the season. Every win or loss changes the standings so much, that’s how the EuroLeague is right now and we just have to focus on the next game.”
VICTÒRIA IMPORTANTÍSSIMA, BARÇA 💙❤ pic.twitter.com/qrzEPZabKU
— Barça Basket (@FCBbasket) March 14, 2025
Barcelona head coach Joan Penarroya praised his team’s valiant effort. “I am very happy for this important win, we showed character to turn the game around after trailing in the first quarter. The team showed great mentality to grind out a big win,” he said.
Penarroya’s grim faced counterpart Zeljko Obradovic could only concede that Partizan paid the price for an awful second quarter which Barcelona won 29-9, leaving the Serbian team a mountain to climb after the break.
“We reacted in the second half but it was too late,” Obradovic stated. “We had some opportunities but we missed too many open shots. This is basketball, we had a very bad second quarter and we have to learn from our mistakes.”
In Round 30, Barcelona is at home to Zalgiris Kaunas while Partizan entertains Anadolu Efes Istanbul in a pair of dogfights for berths in the business end of Europe’s premier club competition.