By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Pablo Prigioni saved Caja Laboral on the buzzer and then Nemanja Bjelica finished Real Madrid in overtime. The team from Vitoria got the win (82-79), leads the semifinal series of Liga Endesa and with one more victory qualifies to the finals.
Prigioni made the buzzer beater (69-69) that led the game to overtime and Bjelica with 13 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assist had his best game as a Caja Laboral player. Sergio Rodriguez (19 p., 4 as.), Novica Velickovic (13 p., 7 r.) and Sergio Llull (12 p., 5 as.) were the standouts for Madrid.
In Turkey there was a break from Besiktas in the TBL finals. The team of coach Ergin Ataman won the first game (82-75) against Anadolu Efes with Great Britain’s Pops Mensah-Bonsu continuing his great season (18 p., 7 r.).
In Italy EA7 Milano beat Scavolini Pesaro 84-75 in the first semifinal game between them. At times the game seemed to be a personal duel between winner Malik Hairston (16 p., 6 r.) and James White (18 p., 6 r., 4 as.) who did his best for Pesaro.
In France there were two overtime games and two qualification to the semifinals by 2-1 wins. Le Mans beat Nancy 92-84 (70-70) and regular season first placed Gravelines was shocked by eight placed Cholet 72-78 (63-63) that got the road win and the qualification. Brazilian center Joao Paulo Batista was a beast in the paint for Nancy (21 p., 9 r.) and – drafted by Miami Heat – Robert Dozier (18 p., 5 r.) was the best for Cholet.
In Serbia Partizan beat on the road Vojvodina (87-81) and with 2-0 wins qualified to the league finals, while Crvena Zvezda beat Radnicki 76-62 (1-1) and forced a Game 3 in the semifinals.