Esqueira 64, Povoa 84. The visitors ran riot in the LPB on Saturday evening, turning what looked like a tight contest into a comfortable victory that does little for the hosts' seventh-place standing. We'd backed the home side at 73 per cent confidence before kickoff — the kind of figure that sounds certain until the game decides otherwise. Povoa's shooting range proved too wide for Esqueira to contain.
The statistics tell a story of control without domination. Povoa hit 34 field goals from 73 attempts, adding eight three-pointers and eight free throws to build their lead. Esqueira managed 20 shots from 66 attempts, matching the visitors' eight three-pointers but falling short at the line with just 16 from 21. Both sides turned the ball over 15 times — that's where the game was won and lost, really.
Esqueira's record now sits at nine wins from 22 games, thirteen defeats, no draws. They've been losing streaks before, but not like this. Their recent run shows inconsistency against the league's stronger sides — losses to Sporting, Benfica, and others that have kept them out of contention. Povoa, meanwhile, came in with mixed results but found their rhythm when it mattered.
The rebounding battle favoured the visitors, 44 to 36, with Povoa grabbing 14 offensive boards to Esqueira's 12. That extra opportunity created space for the shooting to work. Esqueira's 24 defensive rebounds weren't enough to stop Povoa finding room in the paint, and the assists tally — 14 to 11 — showed better ball movement from the away team.
By then the prediction looked naive. We'd seen Esqueira beat Porto 86-85 in April, won against Vitoria 87-93 — those results made the confidence figure feel justified. But this wasn't April. Povoa turned it around after the break, and the gap widened until the final whistle brought the score to 64-84. The hosts will need to regroup if they want to climb out of seventh.
