Zurab Talakvadze

Tornike Shengelia and Virtus Bologna were limited to 67 points and Real Madrid came out victorious from Italian trip 80:67. The out of form Spanish giant crushed the hosts in every possible way. And, Toko, Georgian National team captain, did not have the answers as well. They seemed to be doomed from the very start. Real was just on another level.

Shengelia was hungry for the win, but all in all, did not have his best game at all. He merely played 23 minutes and scored just 8 points on a modest 2/6 shooting. Toko made all 4 of his free throws, but that played in comparison to his normal dominant self. Shengelia was not dominating and Real was deep, dark and mercy less. Virtus just got overrpowered.

Real is monster on it’s home court, WiZink Center, where the 11-time Euroleague champion is 10:4, good for joint third-best record in the event. But Real struggles big in away games from Madrid. Real has gone 3:10 on its travels. It all will come down to the last rounds of the competition, where Real will need some big time basketball and timely wins to go through the next round.

Real is up to 11th place, which means they are one place outside the play-in tournament. They controlled the Virtus game from start to finish and ended up victorious. Virtus was down by 22 points and never crawled its way back to single digits. Real was torturing the hosts. Virtus made only 3 of 20 three pointers, good for miserable 15 percent. Virtus was never a force in the paint and Real simply, has a better squad these days. Madrid power was just too much for the skinny Italian team.

Shengelia is having a good season so far. Tornike is averaging 16.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and almost 3 assists per game. His PIR is more than 17 and Toko is a solid defender as well. It just does not click at all for Virtus. Shengelia and his team just lost the ground early and failed to gain it afterwards. Virtus is good in some games, but not good enough for the real come back stretch. The time is running out for Toko and his friends. The time to qualify for the next stage.

Shengelia will retool and start preparing for the next clash, while Real will have to win the rest of the game sin Euroleague. It is that simple.

Time does not wait for Madrid.