Ryan Toolson struck from three-point land with 0.8 seconds left to give Unicaja Malaga a morale-boosting 93-90 win over Anadolu Efes in Group F of the Euroleague Top 16.
The game looked certain to go to overtime before Toolson’s heroics. Thomas Heurtel also hit from deep with 5 ticks left to tie the game at 90-90 as the Turkish side fought back from 14-points down.
The Liga Endesa leaders showed enough character to get the job done and pick up only their second win of the Top 16, delaying their near-expected elimination by another week.
“As long as I am Unicaja’s coach, we will fight every day,” Unicaja coach Joan Plaza said. “We must go and try to beat Milan on the road.
“This win helps us improve in the standings. We lost some games by a narrow margin. I think it is fair that we won in the final second. We must keep working with high ambition. We are going to the foul line more often because we play more aggressive under the rims.”
Toolson finished with 25 points, while Jon Stefansson scored 15 in victory. Heurtel scored 20 of his 23 points in the second half, to lead Efes, but drop to 4-5.
Olympiacos beat EA7 Milano 83-74 on the road in the other Group F clash as the Reds will finish the Top 16 with a winning record and could qualify for the quarter-final playoffs as early as next week.
Vassilis Spanoulis led the winners with 14 points along with 8 assists, Othello Hunter also registered 14 points and Georgios Printezis added 13 as Olympaicos stay top of Group F with an 8-1 record.
Alessandro Gentile led Milan with 24 points as they look unlikely to repeat their surprise quarter-final birth form last season.
Real Madrid had an incredible seven players in double figures as they eased past troubled Galatasaray 107-71 in Istanbul.
Despite the Turkish side’s well documented financial woes plus the departures of Carlos Arroyo and Aleks Maric due to the highlighted problems, they bravely fought with Real Madrid, cheered on by nearly 12,000 fans at the Abdo Ipecki Arena, but the 2015 Copa del Rey winners were too much.
The victory lifted first-place Madrid’s record to 8-1 in Group E, while Galatasaray dropped to 2-7. Andres Nocioni made 4 of 5 threes for 16 points for the winners,
“We moved the ball quickly and we shot well,” said Real coach Pablo Laso. “We took advantage in the first half. In the second half we lost our concentration. They hit some three-pointers, but in the last quarter we controlled the game.”
