Murcia, Apr 12 (EFE).- Unicaja de Málaga will play the Final Four of the FIBA Champions League after winning their series against UCAM Murcia Club Baloncesto by two victories to nil and sealing the pass with a clear victory by 74- 96 in the capital of Segura in a match that was resolved in their favor in a very good second half for their side after a much more even first half.
UCAM CB, which had won the seven games it had played at home in the competition this season and with which the American point guard Chris Chiozza made his debut, only held on with serious options to fight for the victory until the break and fell apart at start from there.
Unlike what happened the previous week, in which the compositors won 83-67 on their court, being much superior from the start, this other clash had a different development but a similar outcome.
The Costa del Sol team started the game better and defended at a good level, which allowed them to open the gap from the start (5-12) with the home team scoring only two baskets in six minutes.
Chiozza, a player signed last week, made his debut as a grana already in that first quarter and his entry onto the court coincided with the university reaction. Two triples, one from Ilimane Diop and another from Chiozza himself, and one more basket from Diop led to an 8-0 run so that Sito Alonso’s men took the lead at 13-12 and closed the period four points up (20 -16), coming most of his scoring with triples and a good average of 5/10 from long range.
In the second quarter the alternatives followed one another without neither Murcia nor Malaga managing to prevail. In fact, the break was reached with a tie at 40 after Travis Trice, with a triple almost on the buzzer, leveled the one that Kendrick Perry had previously scored for Ibon Navarro’s team.
After the restart, Unicaja, with a 0-7 run, regained its maximum advantage in the match up to that moment and forced Sito Alonso to call a time-out in less than two and a half minutes. From there, the exchange of baskets and misses favored the Andalusian team, which raised its income to ten points after a triple by Tyler Kalinoski and a dunk by Will Thomas (51-61) and then to 11 after another basket from three by Dario Brizuela (58-69).
The last period, which began with 60-69, was faced by UCAM CB knowing that they had to throw in the rest to extend the tie against an opponent as solid as the one they faced.
However, another better start to the quarter by the Copa del Rey champions gave them an advantage of 15 points (53-68) and almost sentenced their classification.
There were six minutes left but the sensations were clear and the victory of Ibon Navarro’s men was not in danger, among other things because Dario Brizuela was not willing to allow it and with his individual quality and outside success he left the match more than resolved.
The 74-96, which was the biggest difference in the match, with the young Mario Saint-Supery, 16 years old, already on court, concluded a game that had its most tense moment with a confrontation between Sadiel Rojas and David Kravish with disqualifying fouls for both with 31 seconds to go.
Datasheet:
74. UCAM Murcia Club Basketball (20+20+20+14): Bellas (-)-, McFadden (-), Jelínek (6), Radovic (8) and Pustovyi (8) -starting five-, Trice (10) , Chiozza (8), Sakho (6), Diop (6), Anderson (12) and Rojas (10).
96. Unicaja de Málaga (16+24+29+27): Perry (13), Brizuela (17), Kalinoski (8), Ejim (4) and Sima (5) -starting five-, Osetkowski (5), Barreiro (6), Carter (3), Dedovic (6), Thomas (9), Kravish (16) and Saint-Supery (4).
Referees: Wojciech Liszka, from Poland; Kerem Baki, from Türkiye; and Gatis Salins, from Latvia. They expelled with disqualifying fouls the local Rojas (m.40) and the visitor Kravish (m.40) and also the physical trainer of UCAM CB, Manu Marín (m.40).
Incidents: Second game of the FIBA Basketball Champions League quarterfinal series that was played at the Palacio de los Deportes in Murcia before some 4,000 spectators.