By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
One tremendous first Final between Barcelona and Real Madrid was judged in a fittingly fascinating manner: By a buzzer-beating lay up with which Stratos Perperoglou handled his team victory 100-99 over its arch-rival.
The Greek forward was one of the best players of his team, finishing the match with 18 points and 5 rebounds. By shooting 6/7 from downtown and adding 19 points Justin Doellman was the top scorer from Barcelona, while Ante Tomic “touched” the triple-double thanks to his 14 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists.
Jaycee Carroll paced the Madridistas with 21 points and Sergio Llull provided a double-double of 14 points and 10 assists.
The game was a festival of offensive basketball delivered from both sides with fast-paced rhythm and great shooting. All these are evident by the large final score and the fact that both teams combined for 50 assists and only 16 turnovers.
No squad managed to feel safe at any point of the game, since every they were trying to build, was crumbling down almost at an instant.
With everything up for grabs in the final seconds, Gustavo Ayon completed two big plays on both ends of court: First by scoring a difficult lay up for the 98 – 99 and then by blocking Juan Carlos Navarro.
But the captain of Barcelona redeemed himself in the next play: After receiving the ball back from his inbound pass to Tomic, “La Bomba” attracted enough Real Madrid players to “open” Perperoglou, who was had taken a spot under the rim, and give him the invaluable assist for the latter’s game winning buzzer beater.