By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Winning all three home games in last year’s Basketball Champions League Round of 16, Unicaja started from where they left, getting a dominating 89-70 win over Tofas Bursa in front of its fans in Malaga.
Ending with 21 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists, Tyson Carter had a pretty good night in the Martin Carpena Arena to contribute to Unicaja Malaga’s victory, while his backcourt partner Kendrick Perry had 8 points, 4 rebounds, and 8 assists. Kameron Taylor added 12 points and 8 boards.
Knowing Malaga closely from time in the ACB League with Manresa and Granada, Luke Maye scored 18 points with 7 rebounds in the losing effort. Zeljko Sakic had a similar stat line with 21 points and 7 rebounds, while J.J O’Brien added 10 points on 6/6 at the charity stripe.
Orhun Ene’s team surprised the hosts early in the game, getting the 10-point lead (17-7) with 5:01 minutes in the first quarter, but Ibon Navarro’s players rapidly came back fired up by the Andalucian audience.
Unicaja found the 20-point lead (59-39) with 1:56 minutes on the clock, closing things up.
Just like Cholet Basket, who got the French derby victory over SIG Strasbourg thanks to the massive 51-point scoring contribution from the bench, Unicaja Malaga had 48 points from players who didn’t start the game – Tyson Carter, for example, was one of them. Tofas Bursa only had 13 points from the bench.
PHOTO CREDIT: Basketball Champions League