By Cesare Milanti / info@eurohoops.net
BELGRADE, Serbia – When Ibon Navarro was asked how he felt after making it to the Basketball Champions League Final, he said to ask him in two days, probably crossing his fingers.
Now, the Spanish head coach must feel pretty pleased, because his team has finally done it. By beating Lenovo Tenerife 80-75, Unicaja Malaga won its first-ever Basketball Champions League title, getting their revenge after last year’s 4th place at the Martin Carpena Arena.
They’ve done it with a three-point shooting party (14/35 from deep) and capturing 13 steals against the Canarian side, forcing Lenovo Tenerife to 19 turnovers – just to put it in perspective, no team ever made 10+ steals in a BCL final before.
Celebrating his insertion into this year’s Basketball Champions League Star Lineup, Kendrick Perry led his team to victory with 17 points over 6/9 from the field. He was named the BCL Final Four MVP. “I’m relieved “one of the jobs” is now finished”, he commented. “I haven’t looked at that game against Bonn, I don’t want to live in the past”, he then said about last year’s defeat in the Semi-Finals.
Tyson Carter delivered not only highlight-worthy plays but most importantly ended with 11 points to contribute to his team’s victory. Nihad Dedovic was huge in pushing the green-and-purple side at the beginning of the second half, ending with 14 points over an almost perfect shooting night (5/6 FG) with also four made shots from beyond the arc, his career-high in the Basketball Champions League.
“We have improved especially mentally to be ready for this moment”, Ibon Navarro commented after. “I’m happy for the guys, it’s not easy to compete with these players. I was really surprised, I didn’t expect any of my players to get any awards because they don’t have great numbers. It’s important that people realize that when you just think about the team, great things can happen”, he said.
Playing against Unicaja Malaga after being named the MVP of the Season, Marcelinho Huertas became the oldest player to take part in a Basketball Champions League Final at 40 years and 339 days old. He finished it with a losing effort of 14 points, 5 rebounds, and 9 assists.
He’s now the second player to combine 10+ points, 5+ rebounds, and 5+ assists in a BCL Final, after Burgos’ Thad McFadden in 2020 (18pts, 6reb, 5ast). He also became the 4th player in BCL to score more than 1000 points after his P&R partner Giorgi Shermadini, Vojtech Hruban, and Levi Randolph.
“You can’t only measure success when you’re the champion. There are many more things you do throughout the season that could measure success. We’ve been fighting for so many years to always be in the final phase of the competition”, he commented in the post-game press conference.
The Georgian center also tried his best with 16 points and 6 rebounds in Txus Vidorreta’s team’s defeat, while the leading scorer of the season Kyle Guy had an outcome of 18 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists, but with 6 turnovers as well after dropping 36 to eliminate Peristeri in the Semi-Finals.
“With this criteria, it’s very difficult to play with Unicaja. Competing till the end is proud, a silver medal which is like gold. Our two silver medals were against Virtus Bologna and Unicaja Malaga, EuroLeague teams”, Txus Vidorreta commented in the post-game aftermath.
How did Unicaja win the Basketball Champions League?
Bringing his team up by six points (16-10) from three before the first quarter could end, Nihad Dedovic created an early separation between the two sides. According to Stats Perform, this game’s first quarter was the second-lowest first quarter of a BCL Final ever with 26 points, following last year’s BCL Final.
Unicaja Malaga could have bet with history, as the team leading at the end of the first quarter won six of the previous seven Basketball Champions League Finals, with the only exception happening in 2020 when San Pablo Burgos recovered to get the victory against AEK.
This year’s Basketball Champions League Star Lineup member David Kravish put Ibon Navarro’s up 22-16 with 6:40 on the clock in the second, but Lenovo Tenerife entered a 5-0 run to try restoring balance. However, Tyson Carter had a poster dunk and a huge three-pointer for the 8-point lead (29-21).
After Kendrick Perry’s buzzer-beater, Unicaja Malaga went to the halftime up 38-27. Opening the third quarter, Ibon Navarro’s team started from where they ended, as Nihad Dedovic banked in from deep twice for the 15-point lead (44-29). Fran Guerra reduced it to four points (54-50) with 3:09 left.
Starting the fourth quarter down by six points (62-56), Lenovo Tenerife looked like they had no chance. According to Stats Perform, Unicaja had won 11 of the 12 games when leading at the end of the 3rd quarter in the BCL this season.
With 8:17 minutes left, Alberto Diaz threw it up and Yankuba Sima finished the alley-oop down to put Unicaja Malaga once again up by 10 points (67-57). After Tenerife fought back again with a 7-0 run, Kendrick Perry replied with five straight points in leading fashion. From then on, Ibon Navarro’s team never turned its back, going all the way to the final victory.
Watch Tenerife-Unicaja’s post-game press conference:
PHOTO CREDIT: Basketball Champions League
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