Málaga, Feb 4 (EFE).- Unicaja struck first in the FIBA Champions League quarterfinal tie by beating UCAM Murcia 83-67 on Tuesday in a choral exhibition by the Málaga team, with Darío Brizuela as the striker. lance (19 points and a PIR of 21), which is why he is one victory away from moving on to the Final Four.
The beginning of UCAM Murcia was a mirage: Pustovyi’s omnipresence in both paintings and McFadden’s electricity quickly faded in a bad first half for the visitors, who already went to forced marches against a Unicaja in their sauce throughout the match.
A 2+1 by Kendrick Perry in the first penetration that he tried was fuel to light the Palacio de los Deportes in Malaga against a Murcia team that was overmatched with four fouls in less than four minutes of the game. This was going to be the tonic of the clash, very stuck and with many referee protests involved.
A three-pointer from Melvin Ejim off a pass from Brizuela made it 14-3, a devastating initial set for Sito Alonso’s men, who had to call a time-out and had already received a technique for protesting vehemently to the referees.
A triple under pressure and a great basket from Trice were the only green shoots for the university students, who were far inferior to a Unicaja team led by the Mamba Vasca (8 points in seven minutes).
In the 13th minute, Alberto Díaz had to limp off to the locker room after spraining his ankle which left him sore and his fans worried. Meanwhile, Unicaja opened the gap to reach a 20-point difference (41-21, minute 18), with a latent superiority that forced Murcia to readjust after the break.
Without the success of Travis Trice, who scored 21 points for Unicaja in the last match in the Endesa League that the Murcians beat the cashiers, UCAM was entrusted to insist on the height of Pustovyi desperately, because Unicaja’s defense did not drop neither did the rhythm in the third quarter.
With Brizuela infallible in the penetration actions with a pumped shot, Unicaja closed the victory, favored by a host of things better executed than its rival, such as the 36% success in the triple that contrasted with the poor 15% of UCAM Murcia .
For the last quarter there was time for controversy, stoppages due to fouls, two eliminated in each team (Barreiro, Kravish and Rojas, Sakho) and more points for the feast of Brizuela and his team, which reached a 30 advantage, but it would finally be 16 before the timid Murcian reaction.
The people of Malaga will be able to access the Final Four of this ‘Champions’ if they win next Wednesday (8:30 pm) at the UCAM Murcia stadium, which if they tie the tie, they would play the tie-breaker match at Carpena in two weeks.
– Datasheet:
83 – Unicaja (23+22+23+15): Perry (9), Brizuela (19), Djedovic (10), Ejim (4), Sima (7) -initial quintet- Osetkowski (3), Kravish (8) , Barreiro (8), Thomas (8), Carter (4), Alberto Díaz (0), Kalinoski (3).
67 – UCAM Murcia (10+17+18+22): Bellas (0), McFadden (9), Radovic (10), Anderson (3), Pustovyi (11) -starting quintet- Diop (6), Jelinek (5). Trice (6), Luther (5), Rojas (3), Sakho (0), Andronicashvili (9).
Referees: Yohan Rosso (France), Saverio Lanzarini (Italy) and Aleksandar Glisic (Serbia). Eliminated for fouls by Jordan Sakho and Sadiel Rojas, from UCAM Murcia; and Jonathan Barreiro and David Kravish, from Unicaja.
Incidents: First game of the FIBA Champions League quarterfinals, played at the José María Martín Carpena Pavilion before 9,653 spectators.