A Fertiberia Puerto Sagunto side still under construction narrowly lose to BM Benidorm in the Valencian Community Cup.

Fertiberia Puerto Sagunto have lost the Valencian Community Cup 24–23 to BM Benidorm

Fertiberia Puerto Sagunto, who had given such a poor impression in pre-season, improved their performance today, especially in defence, and managed in bursts to win back a match they had been losing, with Benidorm leading by four and five goals, mainly as a result of attacking turnovers, a constant feature of the match. Despite improved individual performances from the key players, there are still no collective patterns and automatisms to give fluency to the red-and-white attack.

Moving on to the match itself, after an even start, Benidorm ran the counter-attacks and, through Esteban and Cuartero, took advantage of an incisive defence that forced errors and poor shot selection from Milos's players. Only Slovenian Jaka was finding the net with some ease, and with his final tally of six goals he was the match's top scorer, well supported by pivot Pozzer, who scored five. The aforementioned turnovers led to an 11–7 scoreline in the 25th minute. A Milos time-out and the replacement of the misfiring Ruben and Linares by Inestrosa and Pacheco stopped the bleeding and reduced the deficit to 13–10, leaving the match finely poised for the second half.

Benidorm, much more fluid and adventurous with their rotations, took advantage of their lead to put their second-string players on court at the start of the second half. They performed very well, extending the lead to 17–11, which looked decisive with 40 minutes still to play. But Fertiberia had not said their final word and, backed by their outstanding defence, the previously quiet figure of David Bruixola emerged and he began making saves.

Although the red-and-white attack was faltering, the experience and quality of Pacheco and Inestrosa, both far from their best form, helped make sense of Latorre's bold choices and began to breach the Alicante defence more fluently, thanks to their connections with Pozzer and Inestrosa's goals during that spell.

With that, the final red-and-white surge brought the score to 23–21, and Inestrosa missed a seven-metre throw with two minutes remaining. A debatable decision over a rebound in Pocholo's hands gave Benidorm the ball to make it 24–21 with a minute remaining, but the young Chueca prevented them from finishing the job from seven metres. 24–22 to Fertiberia, and the final half-minute produced one more goal for the final score of 24–23.

Next Saturday in Cangas del Morrazo, the experimentation will be over and Fertiberia Puerto Sagunto will fight to make a good start to the 2016–2017 season, when the points really count.

BM Benidorm: Mijusjovic and Calle. Macahn (1), Simonet (1), Hector, Torrico (1), Esteban (5), Eloy, Grau (4), Salinas (1), Chernov, Jimenez (2), Saez (2), Cuartero (3), Valles (1) and Bernabeu (3).

Fertiberia Puerto Sagunto: Bruixola, Ibrahim and Chueca. Ruben (1), Inestrosa (2), Pocholo (1), Spiljak (6), Piro, Angel, Montoya, Pozzer (5), Alegre, Angel (1), Linares (3) and Pacheco (2)

Officials: Soria and Iniesta (Valencian Community), who excluded Eloy (2), Grau, Salinas, Chernov and Cuartero for Benidorm, and Tarrasó, Pozzer and Linares for Fertiberia.

Score every 5 minutes:2–2, 5–3, 8–4, 10–7, 11–7, 13–10. Half-time. 17–11, 18–14, 21–17, 23–20, 24–23 Final

L'Illa Benidorm Pavilion. 900 spectators.

Translation produced using artificial intelligence.