First test and first statement. Casademont Zaragoza defeated iLerna Lleida 106-102 in its preseason opener, with Justin Jaworski putting on a scoring display with 38 points in his debut with the red-and-white squad
How It Played Out
The opening was impressive: a 13-2 run in three minutes, with Zaragoza sharp on offense and taking advantage of Lleida's defensive vulnerabilities. The first substitutions balanced the game (24-20 at the end of the first quarter) and Lleida turned it around in the second, with a layup from Zacharie Perrin for 29-32. From there, seven minutes of back-and-forth left it 49-48 at halftime.
The third quarter followed the same script, with Gonzalo García de Vitoria's team taking the initiative without pulling away (74-69). In the fourth, the Catalans took the lead for the first time in a while (80-82 with five minutes left) and forced the Aragonese to earn it down the stretch: a 5-0 run made it 102-97 with a minute to go and Lleida had no answer.
What Jaworski's Debut Says
The 38 points are the exact calling card of what the club went looking for in July. Jaworski, a 27-year-old shooting guard standing 1.90 meters, arrived at Príncipe Felipe for one season from Surne Bilbao, with whom he just won the FIBA Europe Cup and where he tied the club's all-time record with eight three-pointers in a game. Previously, he had won the Italian Cup with Napoli against Olimpia Milano and was the leading scorer in the Bundesliga with Oldenburg, averaging 19.5 points. In his presentation, he acknowledged that conversations with García de Vitoria were decisive in signing, and that the coach told him he would be one of the team's offensive cornerstones. Mission accomplished so far, at least.
Context: A Team Still Coming Together
The necessary caveat is that we're in August and Casademont is practically a brand-new team. Only four players remain from last season—Trae Bell-Haynes, Jaime Fernández, Miguel González, and Gabriel Olaseni—against seven new additions: Guillem Vives, Sergi García, Caleb Homesley, Jaworski himself, Nico Brussino, Roberts Blumbergs, and Laurynas Birutis. And in this first test, three of them were missing: Bell-Haynes, Brussino, and Blumbergs are still with their national teams for the FIBA window. Brussino, in fact, was playing with Argentina this same week in Mar del Plata.
For García de Vitoria, who is taking his first major opportunity as head coach after serving as an assistant last season, the stat to correct is in the other column: 102 points allowed against a direct rival for survival. There will be time. The team has four more friendlies ahead before debuting in the Liga Endesa on September 27 at Tenerife.