Gran Canaria wins ANGT Valencia to reach ANGT Finals!

U18 Herbalife Gran Canaria booked its ticket to the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Finals for the second time by defeating U18 Unicaja Malaga 72-88 in the first-place game of the ANGT Valencia Qualifier on Sunday. Jean Montero tallied 30 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists as Gran Canaria advanced to the ANGT Finals at the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four in Cologne, Germany in May. Khalifa Diop chipped in 21 points, 10 rebounds and 4 blocks and Ruben Lopez had 14 points, 13 rebounds and 5 assists. Gran Canaria's only previous trip to the finals came in 2009, after going undefeated in the ANGT qualifier in Rome. Unicaja lost despite Javier Rodriguez picking up 17 points and Yannick Nzosa adding 15 points, 8 rebounds and 4 blocks. Unicaja has played in the ANGT Finals three times: 2009, 2010 and 2015.

Nzosa picked up two early baskets in giving Unicaja a 6-2 lead. Montero's 4 points evened the game at 6-6 but Gran Canaria struggled to get points on the board while another Nzosa score helped Unicaja move ahead 10-6. The islanders got a three-point play from Montero and knotted it 13-13 on Pedro Lopez-Sanvincente's free throws. But Adrian Ramirez hit 2 three-pointers at the other end, the second of them on the first-quarter buzzer, for a 19-15 Unicaja advantage. Gran Canaria held Unicaja scoreless for almost the first 5 minutes of the second quarter as Lopez tallied 4 points for a 19-21 lead. A Montero triple started a 2-8 Gran Canaria spurt to push the difference to 23-29. The Dominican Republic talent added another long ball just before the halftime buzzer for a 29-34 Gran Canaria advantage at the break. Gran Canaria pushed the lead to 33-40 only to see Pablo Sanchez pick up 4 straight points and cut the gap to 39-40. The islanders punched back with a 2-9 surge in which Lopez had 4 points to make it 41-49. The deficit was down to 49-51 until Lopez-Sanvicente scored all 8 points in a 3-8 close to the third quarter for a 52-59 score after 30 minutes. Unicaja failed to score for the first 2 minutes of the final frame and watched Gran Canaria pull away 53-68 after Diop's three-point play. Montero downed another triple and Diop scored twice more in pushing the difference to 60-75. Unicaja scored 5 quick points to pull within 65-75 with 3 minutes left but Diop answered with a dunk and another score and it was 65-79 with 2 minutes to play. Unicaja could not get closer than 11 points the rest of the way.