“This victory does us very good emotionally”

Malvín added his second victory in LUB 2021/22 after beating Defensor Sporting by 80 to 71. Juan Santiso, who was one of the figures, spoke with Basketball Total.

On the process of the match, he said: “I think the party split in two. A first time in which it was difficult for us to enter the game, where they planted very well and lowered our score. If we want to win, we have to be the team in the second half, which was when we showed the character and hierarchy that we have”. In addition, he added: “This victory does us very good emotionally”.

In the last 5 minutes of the third quarter, Malvín imposed a 12-1 run. On this, the “Pitu” commented: “That’s it on a defense basis. We are a team that attacks from intensity, so if we stay intense during the 40 minutes we are very dangerous. That 12-1 run was because we got tough at the back and started running, which is one of our strengths. From there we generate, and we always seek to give it to the partner who is best located”.

Santiso also dedicated a few words to two of the foreigners: “Hilliard joined the team barbarously. He is very committed and knows what to do. Today, Holt also had a great match. He got in very well the second half. With their help we were able to turn a game that was very uphill”.

The “Pitu” not only took over the leadership of the team for most of the game, but was also the main person in charge of defending Cabot. “I ended up very tired. The last few minutes I really felt the wear and tear. One of my tasks was to try to get Marcos out of the party, which is a very difficult task since I know him and I know the amount of tools he has. I did my best. I think it worked, and luckily the team helped me a lot, and that served to win”, He commented.

Finally, Santiso spoke about how he sees Malvín for the rest of the tournament: “We are going to go little by little, game by game. At the start we were faced with a tough opponent (Aguada) and we fought. Now we put these two games in a row, which really shows me tremendous team pride. They were games that at times were very difficult for us and the team never lowered its arms. Both the other day and today we managed to turn a result that was quite complicated”.