Unicaja rings the bell and blames Barcelona.

While both teams were locked on the defense from the kick-off, Barça prevailed with minimal advantage (10-8, min.5) thanks to external success. Satoransky opened the Barça locker room with a three-pointer, while Mirotic took the lead with 7 points. Perry kicked off Unicaja’s mechanism, which, with 6 goals, caused three turnovers with his aggression and stopped the Catalan team’s play. The Andalusian team took the lead with 7 points from Darío Brizuela on the run, but Rokas Jokubaitis closed the first round with three points and returned control to Barça (21-20).

With Cory Higgins and Mike Tobey at the controls, Barça’s second unit, played by James Nnaji with his physique under the basket, extended Barça’s escape (34-21, min.15) against the Malaga blockade. After a five-minute drought, Kalinoski reactivated Unicaja’s offense from the perimeter, which closed the gap with a three from Carter and a third from Kalinoski, but Satoransky responded with the same drug before the break (41-34).

Ibon Navarro stunned Barça by moving into the zone defense and encouraged Unicaja’s hopes for 7 consecutive points from the inspiring Brizuela, but the Barça team recalibrated the attack and punished them with two three-pointers from Kalinic and Satoranski (49-41, min. 25) . As the clock ticked, the match lost pace as it won in physical friction. The defense prevailed, and in this low-scoring context, the Andalusian team took advantage of Perry’s speed to raise the score at the end of the third quarter (55-50).

Abrines’ five points and hitting Brizuela put Jasikevicius’ team ahead once again (64-53, min.34). With Perry and Brizuela ahead, Unicaja, who was hyperactive in defense, did not throw the towel (67-65, min.37). Osetkowski tied the game with a three-pointer with 55 seconds left, and after the free-throw exchange between Vesely and Brizuela, Higgins hit the iron on the winning shot to take the duel to overtime (76-76).

Perry, Brizuela and Kalinoski took the lead, and Unicaja gained strength from their defense (81-85, min.43). After Laprovittola tied the game with a three-pointer, Perry returned to Unicaja and the Argentine landed another two free throws, 87-89 on the scoreboard with 0.8 seconds remaining. The first failed. And the latter, who had to shoot to see if a teammate had scored to force him back into overtime after a rebound, found no target for any of the Barça players.