2017-18Regular SeasonRound 13
FC Barcelona Lassa 83
Unicaja Malaga 90
December 20, 2017 CET: 21:00
Local time: 21:00 PALAU BLAUGRANA

Nedovic, Augustine pace Unicaja in Barcelona

Unicaja Malaga used stingy defense in the last 15 minutes to upset FC Barcelona Lassa 83-90 on the road Friday. It was the second straight win and second on the road this season for Unicaja, whose record rose to 5-8 as it moved up to 11th place from last two weeks ago. Barcelona fell to 4-9 with its fourth consecutive defeat and fourth at home this season. Barcelona was up 61-56 midway through the third quarter, but was held to just 5 points in the next 8 minutes as Unicaja took the lead for good. Nemanja Nedovic matched his career high with 26 points to power the visitors' offense, while James Augustine upped his career-high rebound total from a week ago to 14 to go with his 12 points. Jeff Brooks added 13 points, while Adam Waczysnki and Ray McCallum had 10 each for Unicaja. Barcelona got 19 points and 9 assists from Thomas Heurtel. Rakim Sanders scored 14, Adrien Moerman 11 and Pau Ribas 10.

Moerman shot from the arc and Brooks drove for a layup to get the scoring started. Nedovic's triple gave Unicaja its first lead, but only until Adam Hanga hit his own. Augustine made a pair of short shots before Kevin Seraphin put back a rebound for Barcelona at 8-9. Brooks, Sanders and Dani Diez went back and forth from the three-point line, but the latter added a layup to keep Unicaja ahead 13-16. Heurtel and Nedovic traded triples next, and Brooks gave the visitors a high lead of 16-21. Hanga's fastbreak layup was answered by Augustine on a put-back. Ribas stole and scored to get Barcelona within 21-23 before Waczynski and Victor Claver exchanged long-range strikes to close the first quarter at 24-26. Giorgi Shermadini and Pierre Oriola scored in close right away in the second, but otherwise the scoring slowed until Ribas picked it up with a triple to get Barcelona within 29-30. Sanders did the honor of putting the hosts in front with a monster dunk. Carlos Suarez, Seraphin and Augustine traded inside baskets before Heurtel unloaded another three-pointer for a new Barcelona lead, 36-34. Heurtel stayed hot with a three-point play and a jumper as the difference shot up to 41-35. Sanders and Seraphin kept the lead solid before Suarez and McCallum trimmed it down to 45-44 at halftime.

Nedovic tied the game from the foul line before he and Sanders traded threes to make it 48-48. Layups by McCallum, Nedovic and Oriola led to a go-ahead triple by Moerman at 45-48. Nedovic dunked before Oriola and Sanders scored layups, but Brooks hit from deep to keep Unicaja close at 61-59. Waczynski's free throws and a basket by Nedovic put Unicaja in front before Waczynski's tip-in made it 61-65. After a timeout, Ribas rolled in a triple for Barcelona's first points in more than 5 minutes, but Unicaja stayed in front 64-66 after 30 minutes. Free throws by Seraphin to forge a tie gave way to Waczynski and Alberto Diaz striking from long distance to put Unicaja up 66-72. Sasha Vezenkov's tip-in for Barcelona was worth his first points since Round 4. Nedovic answered with a pair of strong drives and Waczynski put back a miss for a 71-78 difference, Unicaja's biggest yet. Suarez soon fed Nedovic going backdoor to conserve that lead, 73-80. Hanga's tip-in on the break revived the hosts, but only momentarily, as Nedovic fed Augustine and McCallum got behind the defense for a layup. When Nedovic bounced in a triple entering the final minute, Unicaja had its second win in a row and second on the road for another move up in the standings.

Nemanja Nedovic - Unicaja Malaga - EB17
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Euroleague.net
Referees: BELOSEVIC, ILIJA; MOGULKOC, EMIN; MAJKIC, MARIO
Attendance: 5483
By Quarter1234
FC Barcelona Lassa24211919
Unicaja Malaga26182224
End of Quarter1234
FC Barcelona Lassa24456483
Unicaja Malaga26446690
FC Barcelona Lassa
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 SERAPHIN, KEVIN 20:51 8 3/6 0/1 2/4 5 5 10   1 1 1 2 4 5 12
5 RIBAS, PAU 21:55 10 1/2 2/4 2/2       2 1 1     1 2 10
9 HANGA, ADAM 28:58 8 2/3 1/2 1/4 1 5 6 3     1   2 3 14
11 NAVARRO, JUAN CARLOS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
13 HEURTEL, THOMAS 29:34 19 4/9 3/5 2/3 1 2 3 9 1 1   1 1 3 24
14 VEZENKOV, SASHA 6:45 2 1/1 0/1   1   1           1   1
18 ORIOLA, PIERRE 19:09 8 3/7   2/4 2 3 5     2     3 2 4
21 SANDERS, RAKIM 23:24 14 4/9 2/4     3 3 1   1   1 3 2 8
25 KOPONEN, PETTERI 12:27   0/3       1 1 1   1       1 -1
30 CLAVER, VICTOR 13:01 3 0/1 1/2     2 2   1       2   2
44 TOMIC, ANTE DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
45 MOERMAN, ADRIEN 23:56 11 1/2 3/7   1 3 4 1         3   8
Team             4 4     1         3
Totals 200:00 83 19/43 12/26 9/17 11 28 39 17 4 8 2 4 20 18 85
        44.2% 46.2% 52.9%
Head coach: ALONSO, SITO
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Unicaja Malaga
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
2 OKOUO, VINY 1:18                         2   -2
3 MCCALLUM, RAY 24:23 10 5/8 0/4     2 2 4   1 1   1   8
9 DIAZ, ALBERTO 15:37 3 0/1 1/2                   4   -3
10 SALIN, SASU 7:30     0/1     1 1 1           1 2
11 DIEZ, DANIEL 13:58 4 2/2 0/2     2 2 1     1       6
12 MILOSAVLJEVIC, DRAGAN 10:09 1 0/1 0/1 1/2   1 1 1   1     1 1 -1
16 NEDOVIC, NEMANJA 27:40 26 6/8 4/8 2/4   3 3 4 1 1   1 1 3 26
17 SHERMADINI, GIORGI 12:01 4 1/3   2/2 4 3 7     2       5 12
21 WACZYNSKI, ADAM 20:43 10 2/3 2/3 0/3 1 1 2   2 1     3 4 9
23 BROOKS, JEFF 27:22 13 2/7 3/3 0/1   2 2     1   1 2 2 7
40 AUGUSTINE, JAMES 20:29 12 6/8 0/1   4 10 14 4 1   2   3   27
43 SUAREZ, CARLOS 18:50 7 1/2 0/2 5/6 1 5 6 2         1 4 14
Team           2   2               2
Totals 200:00 90 25/43 10/27 10/18 12 30 42 17 4 7 4 2 18 20 107
        58.1% 37% 55.6%
Head coach: PLAZA, JOAN

Head Coaches

ALONSO, SITO
FC Barcelona Lassa
"I have the sensation that this game was different than the last two we played. A loss does us no good, but against Madrid and [in domestic league] against Gran Canaria, the group sensation wasn't like today, when the team has shared the ball better, with better rhythm. When we could have gone 7 or 8 points ahead, Unicaja came back to take over the scoreboard and after that it was difficult, above all when they hit 2 three-pointers in a row to go ahead by 6. In that moment, it was like that was too big for us, and we have to change and not let a small deficit seem more than it is."
PLAZA, JOAN
Unicaja Malaga

"Always when you win, you feel happy. For me it doesn't matter if it's here or in Madrid or in Valencia or wherever. But it's true that we knew Barcelona had a lot of anxiety to win this game. We needed to be strict with our mistakes, and when we were able to reduce their percentage hitting threes, we got back in the game with chances to beat them. And we did. On my way to work, I focus on my own team. I know that the other team wants to beat us in the first quarter if they can. But we need to be patient and we did that. We didn't commit too many mistakes at the end. Finally, we deserved it and we won."

"It was a job of wearing them down, of sharpening the blade until the moment of felling the tree. The sensation I have is that we deserved to win. We knew that Barca needed to, but that's a double-edged sword, also for us. We came out serious and we stopped the first run that we expected from Barcelona."

Players

HANGA, ADAM
FC Barcelona Lassa
"We always start the games well, but then it all falls apart. I know I have my share of responsibility because I didn't defend well in the one-on.one, but I just don't know what's going on. We do not play as a team neither in offense nor in defense."
SHERMADINI, GIORGI
Unicaja Malaga
"It's amazing. We won here in Barcelona, one more victory for the team in the EuroLeague, which is most important. Congratulations to my teammates and coaches. Today we played great defense and great offense. In the key moments we had some problems, but our defense was the key in this game."
BROOKS, JEFF
Unicaja Malaga
"It's good to see our offense coming into shape. We played very well offensively in this game. We moved the ball, guys were making aggressive plays. And that's what we need, everybody out there playing their game, playing confident, but playing with the same idea in mind, and that's winning basketball games. And that's what we did tonight. Our defense is always going to be intense, that's a given with our way of basketball. But tonight at the offensive end we did a very good job moving the ball and doing what we had to do to win this game. It's a tough place to play, a tough team to beat, and we pulled it off. Now onto Friday against Milan."
NEDOVIC, NEMANJA
Unicaja Malaga
"I feel good, the whole team feels good. I think that in the last couple of weeks, we've been playing really well, and you can see the results. We knew that Barcelona had some tough games at home before us. We were hoping we could use this to beat them, and we did. I think we deserved this win, we fought the whole 40 minutes, and it was a great win for us. We stayed competitive the whole game. When Barca made their run, they were up by seven, we didn't give up. We got back in the game, and we knew that if we could come to the fourth quarter with options, we would use them. So it was a team effort, that was the key."
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