Friends with an unlucky afternoon made life easier for Benfica

The CAB male team went to Lisbon to face Benfica. At the outset, the game was already facing great difficulty for Friends, especially because Benfica is a team with financial arguments that are not within reach of anyone in the Portuguese League, which allows them to have a high quality squad and rotation capacity. The match did not begin in the best way for the CAB, which lost the first period by 24-9. With the exception of Anthony Hill, who was assuming the highest responsibilities for scoring points, the Madeiran team was clearly below its usual income. Benfica, on the other hand, was mastering the game, not only in the fight of the tables, but also in the defensive aspects, forcing the CAB to make mistakes that were then converted by the house to points. In the second half, the CAB revealed a great deal of fighting and resistance, but at the time of launching the basket, the aim was not the most accurate (only 18% of implementation in the launches, at the interval, against 50% of implementation of Benfica). In addition, the Friends were compromising in small details that, when playing with a team with the potential of Benfica, make all the difference and led to the punctual disadvantage that was maintained when the teams collected at the locker rooms (31-17). At this stage of the meeting, the best markers of the CAB were Anthony Hill (9) and Diogo Ventura (5). On the Benfica side, the most noted were Jeremiah Wilson (10) and Claudio Fonseca (8). On the return to the game, the Cab was again not effective and Benfica took advantage of visitors' mismatch for a partial of 10-0 in the first four minutes of the third half. The punctual regularity of the men of the house was dilating the distance on the marker for numbers of great comfort for Benfica. On the CAB side, there was much struggle, but the will of the Madeirans could not prevent them from reaching the end of the third period at a disadvantage by 59-32. In the last period, the gap between the two teams was again evident. If it is true that the CAB fought and surrendered to the game, it is no less true that Light players have strong arguments that complicate life to any team and that, invariably, made life difficult to the CAB. The final result (80-54) sins by not reflecting the great effort of the CAB men, but also mirrors the superiority of the Benfica, which was evident. Next weekend, the CAB will host the team from Vitória, and, of course, those commended by João Paulo Silva will do everything to overcome the image of greatest fragility left in the Light and return to the victories won at the beginning of the season. We're with them!