By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Although UCAM Murcia came to the Basketball Champions League Final Four after bulldozing their way in the quarterfinal series against Pinar Karsiyaka, they were still considered as the “underdog” of the tournament.
Even moreso since the Spanish team had to face Final Four host AEK in the second semifinal and thus compete under the pressure of nearly 18.000 thousand loud voices screaming against them.
Despite suffering a 15-point deficit early in the game, Murcia fought tooth and nail to erase that margin and also achieved another comeback from down by eight in the final minutes to make it a one-possession affair, before falling in the end.
Among those distinguished from Murcia, was swingman Sadiel Rojas. The Dominican-American player finished the match with a game-high 19 PIR after notching 8 points, 13 rebounds, 3 assists plus 2 steals but preferred to give credit to his teammates for their overall effort.
“These guys, all of my teammates have a lot of character,” Rojas told Eurohoops. “It’s not normal to do that in front of 20.000 people. To come back in the game after being down by 15 points. And then be down and come back again. We have a lot of character as a team that’s why we were able to do that. We came back to win the game. Not to lose. We had two good chances to win. It didn’t happen. The ball didn’t fall our way. But we did what we had to do at the end,”
“I’m very proud of every single one of my teammates. Even the ones that didn’t play,” Rojas told Eurohoops after the semifinal,” Rojas said.
The finale of the game raised some controversy with Murcia complaining about AEK center Delroy James fouling Rojas on the latter’s 3-point attempt from the other side of the floor and the score 77 – 75.
“They (AEK) were trying to foul in the last play,” Rojas said. “And I heard them talking about fouling on the free throw line. I went up for the 3-point shot from full court. And I got fouled. And they (AEK) were trying to foul. That’s what the team said at the free throw line and the referee didn’t call it. And that was the final second.”
“It’s a basketball game. The referees can’t get everything right. But that was the one that could’ve gotten us into the game and overtime. We came out here and did what we had to do. They (referees) were probably scared of the fans. We weren’t. We came out and fought for every second of the game,” Rojas added.