Long-awaited welcome for Facundo Campazzo in Belgrade

Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade fans have had to wait for quite a while to watch Facundo Campazzo in action for their team in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, but the Argentine point guard’s home debut against reigning champ Anadolu Efes Istanbul on Wednesday proved that he is well worth the wait.
Former Real Madrid star Campazzo was signed by the Serbian powerhouse in December, but the club could not register him to appear in the competition until March. His debut came in last week’s road loss at FC Bayern Munich, before he finally stepped out in front of his home fans for the must-win game against Efes.
Campazzo certainly announced his arrival in style: after starting the game on the bench, he came into the action with 4:34 to play in the opening quarter and used his first two possessions to deliver a pair of assists to Ognjen Dobric.
He then really took off at the start of the second period, draining consecutive triples in the space of 40 seconds. Another threeball and two more assists followed, before Campazzo finished his outstanding first half with a two-pointer and then by drawing a three-point shooting foul, accompanied by a technical foul on the Efes bench, which saw him convert all 4 free throws to give his team a halftime lead.
That saw Campazzo finish a near flawless half with 15 points without a miss (1 two-pointer, 3 threes and 4 free throws) along with 4 assists, and there was more to come during the decisive phase of the game in the fourth quarter. With Efes leading 68-70, Campazzo found Stefan Markovic for a three-pointer and then took matters into his own hands, going coast to coast for a driving layup and one and adding two more determined inside baskets.
He kept on leading the offense until the very last play, when he fed Luka Mitrovic for his seventh and final assist as the host cruised to a 94-75 victory. Campazzo’s personal tally, along with those 7 assists, was 22 points on 7-of-8 field goal shooting, along with 3 rebounds, 1 steal and 6 fouls drawn for a PIR of 30 – not far short of his personal bests in scoring (23) and PIR (34).
Next up for Zvezda is a road trip to Panathinaikos on Friday, and if Campazzo can maintain this form, there’s no telling where the season might end.