Stellazzurra Basketball Academy Rome became the first team to book a spot the ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Finals at the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four by winning the Rome qualifying tournament with a 65-50 victory over Unicaja Malaga. Stellazzurra reached the Finals for the first time thanks to a tremendous defensive showing, forcing 28 Malaga turnovers and holding Unicaja to just 31 percent shooting from the field. Iba Thiam led Rome with 13 points while Lorenzo Bucarelli added 12, Todor Radonjic had 10 points and Andrea La Torre collected nine points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals. The loss was Unicaja’s fourth in a qualifying final since 2009, losing the L’Hospitalet finals in 2009 (versus Lietuvos Rytas), 2010 (versus Cajasol Seville) and 2014 (against Real Madrid). Romaric Belemene-Dzabatou led Malaga with 21 points and Rares Uta scored 13 points in the loss.

Malaga had a horrible start to the game, getting two of its first three shots blocked and missing its first eight attempts. Unicaja also turned the ball over four times while Kristinn Palsson scored five points as Stellazzurra opened a 14-0 lead. Ablaye Sow’s free throws were Malaga’s first points with 3:40 minutes left in the first quarter and Belemene-Dzabatou’s three-pointer was Malaga’s first basket to make it 14-5 at the 2:44 minute mark. Palsson’s three-ball and Thiam’s three-point play started a 9-0 run for a 23-5 Rome lead while Unicaja turned the ball over three more times and Carlos Corts was called for an unsportsmanlike foul. Victor Aguiliar did make two free throws for Unicaja but he turned the ball over two more times and the home side led 25-7 after 10 minutes. La Torre opened the second quarter with a three-pointer and Unicaja’s struggles continued with five turnovers and five missed shots while Stellazzurra pushed the lead to 34-7. Viny Okouo’s dunk off an offensive rebound was Malaga’s first basket of the quarter with 4:56 minutes left. The gap was 35-9 with 2:53 minutes to play before Rome missed its final four shots and Malaga pulled to within 35-15 at the break.

Stellazzurra upped the advantage to 39-15 and the lead fluctuated between 19 and 22 points for most of the the third quarter as Rome was up 48-26 with 1:35 minutes left in the period. Uta stepped up and scored 10 points over the rest of the quarter to get Malaga within 50-36 after 30 minutes. But Stellazzurra continued its superb defensive pressure early in the fourth quarter, forcing five Malaga turnovers and four missed shots while Rome’s offense pushed the lead out to 58-36. Jorge Turbica finally scored for Malaga with 4:33 minutes to play to make it 58-38. The advantage was 60-38 before Belemene-Dzabatou made two three-pointers to trim the gap to 60-46 and Corts’ free throws made it 60-48 with 2:05 minutes to play. La Torre turned the ball over but Belemene-Dzabatou turned the ball over to Lazar Nikolic, who then nailed a three-pointer with 1:32 minutes for a 63-48 lead to decide the game.