TAU played its best first half of the season. The defence was, at some points, fantastic (AEK could only hit 9-of-22 field goals) and the Spaniards got leads of up to 8 points (35-27 and 41-33). Ivanovic based his strategy on tough defence while Ivkovic's goal was to load TAU's big players with fouls. Murseep did it perfectly and got three fouls by Scola in the first quarter, and three more by Oberto in the second period. The Argentine duo was in deep trouble. The game got to the half time with TAU ahead by 7 points (41-34). Nevertheless, that which had been TAU's best weapons during the first half (defence and patient offensive plays) simply dissipated. AEK hit two baskets in a row and a technical foul was called on Bennett, which put the Greek team back into the game (43-41 after a 2-7 run). The technical foul got Bennett angry. He managed to turn all his rage into courage to lead his team to victory. In just two minutes, TAU had a lead of 7 again (50-43) after a three-pointer by Timinskas that forced the Greeks to call what turned out to be a totally useless time-out, since TAU increased the run to 13-0 and built a lead impossible to overcome by any team. The Spanish team had fun with the game for some minutes, and the Greeks were totally out of the game. TAU went to the break between the third and fourth quarters remembering what Barcelona had done there the previous Sunday, overcoming a 14-point deficit in one quarter. With that, they began to play seriously again. This is how Baskonia managed to beat a team that, until today, seemed totally unbeatable.