Galicia celebrates four decades of basketball in Sar

Galician basketball opens the season as it has been doing for four decades. The Senior Men's Copa Galicia celebrates its 40th edition this weekend at the Multiusos Fontes do Sar, a venue that has not hosted the tournament since 2013. The Galician Basketball Federation organizes the event with the support of the Santiago City Council and the Obradoiro CAB, in what the president of the Governing Board of the FEGABA, Julio Bernárdez, has defined as the “best moment” for regional basketball. And this is not rhetoric: for the first time in history, three of the four participants will compete this season in the Liga Endesa.

The recent rise of Básquet Coruña and Monbus Obradoiro marks a turning point. The Compostela team achieved direct promotion, while the Herculino club secured it via playoffs. Río Breogán remained in the top category after finishing eleventh the previous season. Only the Club Ourense Baloncesto, which plays in Primera FEB, is excluded from the Liga Endesa, although its participation in Sar underscores the regional importance of the oldest tournament in Galician basketball.

Two semifinals with different profiles

The draw held at the Pazo de San Lorenzo has divided the bracket into two matchups of completely different nature. The first semifinal pits Leyma Coruña against Club Ourense Baloncesto at 18:00 on Saturday, while the second faces Monbus Obradoiro against Río Breogán at 20:30, also on Saturday. The final is scheduled for Sunday the 6th at 19:00.

The matchup between Leyma and Ourense has a clear script: the favorite against the lower category team. However, the COB already proved last year that it does not travel as a guest, although it eventually lost decisively. The second semifinal generates all the intrigue: host against reigning champion, with Obradoiro returning to Sar after its promotion and a Breogán entering this encounter at the start of its 60th institutional anniversary.

Breogán: two-time champion and in form

Río Breogán arrives at the tournament in the best form of the four participating teams. Luis Casimiro has brought together the renewed Mavra, Quintela, Alonso, Andrić, Aranitović, and Branković, completed with the signings Bolton, Ilić, Brown, Peris, Vicedo, Andersson, and Kasibabu. The preseason record is impeccable: three friendlies, three victories.

The results speak for themselves. The light blue team thrashed Sporting de Portugal 110-76 in Ribadeo, defeated Real Madrid in Pontevedra coinciding with Pedro Martínez's debut on the white bench, and capped off its presentation to the fans with a 99-90 win against KK Mega. Historically, Breogán boasts 16 Copas Galicia, four of them in the last five years. The last crown came last September at the Coliseum, in a final that required overtime to overcome Leyma.

Obradoiro: host in construction

Monbus Obradoiro arrives with just the right amount of experience and a measured approach. Diego Epifanio has insisted that summer results do not dictate the roadmap, and the preseason balance only partially supports this. The Compostela team fell in its debut against Leyma in Vilagarcía 89-82 in the final of the II Trofeo San Roque, with 24 points from Verge Jr. Four days later, it responded decisively in Gijón, surpassing Asisa Joventut 77-96 before more than 3,000 spectators, with 22 points from Barcello and a rebound dominance of 33-17.

The schedule does not give the Compostela team a break. After Copa Galicia comes the Torneo EncestaRías, with Valencia Basket as the semifinal opponent, and the preseason close against Unicaja on September 20 at Sar. The pressure to return to Fontes do Sar as a host after promotion adds an emotional component to their participation in the tournament.

Leyma: perfect start with player shortages

Básquet Coruña maintains a perfect record with two victories in preseason, although none were comfortable. Along with the victory in Vilagarcía, another was added in Palencia by 102-104 after overtime, coming back from an eighteen-point deficit. Carles Marco has managed to maintain the unity of the group despite the complications arising from the FIBA windows.

Caio Pacheco, George Conditt IV, Dmytro Skapintsev, and Karlis Silins should already be available for the matchup against Ourense, as reported by DXT Campeón. Leyma has only one Copa Galicia in its history, that of 1996, and arrives at Sar after losing the last two finals. This situation makes their participation an opportunity to break a negative streak in the regional tournament.

Ourense: continuity and surprises

Club Ourense Baloncesto faces the event with continuity as its banner. Moncho López renewed until 2028 and has given the team an identity based on defensive intensity and the growth of the youth academy. The category distance is de facto: the club finished the last Primera FEB in twelfth place with 12 wins and 20 losses.

However, the tournament has provided enough surprises over four decades that no one can write off the matchup before playing it. The COB has demonstrated that it does not travel as a guest, and its presence in Sar reflects the importance that Copa Galicia holds in the regional calendar, regardless of the categories involved.

Tickets and subscriptions are still on sale, and FEGABA will raffle two official jerseys of the Selección Galega among those who purchase them before 15:00 on Friday. The final on Sunday is announced on TVG2; the channel for the semifinals was still unconfirmed at the closing of this preview, although in previous editions the tournament has been split between the Galician public television and the federation's YouTube channel.

This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Galicia celebra cuatro décadas de baloncesto en Sar