By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
A comfortable lead disappeared but Marcelo Huertas sent Lenovo Tenerife to the 74-73 victory over Tofas Bursa Tuesday.
The team coached by Txus Vidorreta dropped the lead for the first time with 11.3 seconds remaining in Game 2 of the Basketball Champions League Playoffs best-of-three series. Similar to Game 1, Huertas delivered yet another decisive blow sinking a close jumper with 1.2 seconds left. The 38-year-old Brazilian guard scored a team-high 15 points and also dished out seven assists at Tofas Nilufer Spor Salonu.
Much earlier, Sasu Salin tucked in his second three-pointer of the night to move past Vojtech Hruban’s 136 and become the player with the most connected triples in FIBA’s top European club continental competition. The Finnish sharpshooter upped his total to 139 with four threes in a 12-point effort.
His side banking in 14 shots from beyond the arc disrupted all previous comeback attempts. Giorgi Shermadini took care of most of the business inside the arc logging 12 points, three rebounds, two blocks, and one assist. Aaron Doornekamp threw in 12 more points plus a game-high nine rebounds.
For Ahmet Caki’s side, Yigit Arslan knocked in the go-ahead three-pointer but his side fell narrowly short and was eliminated. The 25-year-old guard scored 14 points. Jeremy Simmons drew up a game-high 17 points. Tyler Ennis followed with nine points despite playing the entire second half with four fouls to his name.
Besides extending the team-high winning streak to nine games, Tenerife prevailed over any Turkish side for the 11th time over 12 BCL affairs. The lone loss was against Pinar Karsiyaka in January’s Play-In best-of-three series.
The San Cristobal de La Laguna outfit won the title in the inaugural Champions League season in 2017, before following up with Final Four and Final Eight berths from 2019 through 2021. The most successful team of the competition is officially back and hungry for more.
The Final Four will be held in Bilbao between 6 and 8 May.
Postgame press conference:
Photo Credit: Basketball Champions League