By Cesare Milanti / info@Eurohoops.net
MALAGA, Spain – It’s the night of surprises in the 2023 Basketball Champions League Final Four. First, Hapoel Jerusalem pushed the reigning champions Lenovo Tenerife out, and now the hosts Unicaja lost against Telekom Baskets Bonn 69-67, as a German team will play in a BCL Final for the first time ever.
After saying that “Bonn has been great” for him talking to Eurohoops, TJ Shorts led his team as always, ending the game with 21 points and 7 assists while shooting 10/11 at the line. He will probably celebrate by being named MVP of the 2023 Basketball Champions League in tomorrow’s Awards Ceremony. TJ Shorts has now combined 20+ points and 5+ assists in 8 games in 2022-23, the most for a player in a single BCL season.
The 25-year-old combo guard was followed by Finn Delany, who added 13 points. Former Limoges player Javontae Hawkins, who returned to the German team in the middle of the season to contribute towards the Final Four, had 13 points and 6 rebounds.
Kendrick Perry was one of Unicaja’s highest scorers with 12 points, 4 rebounds, and 7 assists. He was followed by Dario Brizuela, who had 12 points for the team coached by Ibon Navarro, who is now the first coach in BCL history to reach the semi-finals with different clubs, after taking UCAM Murcia to the BCL Final Four back in 2018.
Tuomas Iisalo (40 years, 9 months, and 13 days), instead, is the fourth youngest coach to manage a team in the BCL semi-finals. The youngest is Lassi Tuovi, who was 34 years, 4 months, and 6 days old. Perry and Brizuela were followed by Melvin Ejim, who had his best-scoring performance in the Basketball Champions League since joining Unicaja. He provided 12 points and 8 rebounds for the Andalusian team.
“I think our team is inspirational,” mentioned the winning play-caller, “It’s something, when you watch it, you can’t do anything else than admire the conviction of the guys.”
This was the first BCL Final Four game where the teams were level at the end of the 1st quarter, being tied at 22-22. In the second quarter, Telekom Baskets Bonn created an important gap with a 19-9 run, and they won each of their previous nine BCL games where they were ahead by 10+ points at half-time.
In the third quarter, the German team still managed to maintain the lead, and Unicaja only won one of their previous eight BCL games where they were trailing at the beginning of the 4th quarter. Thanks to a two-pointer by Melvin Ejim, Unicaja reduced the margin to only 1 point with 06:00 left. However, since then Telekom Baskets Bonn missed only a few shots to book its ticket for the final.
Overall, Unicaja Malaga shot badly from beyond the arc, recording their worst three-point shooting percentage of the season at 21.21%. On the other end, they were better than Bonn in assists shared (19 vs 9), and points in the paint (24 vs 20). The German team took advantage of every situation, scoring 21 points from Malaga’s turnovers.
The home side will now face Lenovo Tenerife in an-all Spanish 3rd place game, scheduled on Sunday 14 at 17:00 CET. Telekom Baskets Bonn, instead, will try to win the first-ever trophy in the club’s history against Hapoel Jerusalem, which beat the reigning champions earlier, on the same day at 20:00 CET.
PHOTO CREDIT: Basketball Champions League