ImageUnicaja Malaga lost (74-78) a decisive game against Partizan Belgrade in the fourth round in Top-16. Again a bad last quarter made impossible for local team to reach a victory that makes very difficult for the spaniards to qualify for the next round. Instead, serbian team has one foot and a half in the quarterfinals.

There were too many consecutive games for Unicaja to play. Only three days after a forty-five minutes battle against Tau Vitoria, it was the time to face a very difficult rival as Partizan Belgrade is. It was clear that it was going to be a hard game, but nobody in Malaga thought about losing that game, since it would make virtually impossible for local team to advance to the next round.

But visiting team didn't come for nothing. They've already made it against CSKA Moscow, so why not again? Milenko Tepic and Novica Velickovic are one of the best couples playing right now in Europe, not to mention their age, and they can make history in this team full of it. Dusko Vujosevic makes his team to defend with great aggressivity, and they are talented enough to solve some initials problems to score.

Today it was the time for Uros Tripkovic to show his terrific long-distance shooting. He scored five three-pointers, most of then in decisive moments: in the first quarter, when Partizan couldn't score, first one of three consecutive three-pointer for his team in overtime… And together with Stephane Lasme (twenty points and great defense over Haislip), were the main scorers of their team. Tepic, as always, played huge defense and scored when he had to.

Unicaja seems lost right now. This team has nothing to do with that one of first phase, when they were one of the european teams to beat. We already said that they were really tired after the final of King's Cup, but more than only that, they don't seem to have clear ideas about how to play. Omar Cook, who started the season in great shape, is no more that leader he used to be, and Thomas Kelati can't score anymore. Carlos Cabezas is a shadow of the player he was…

A bad last quarter made the team to loose the game, as it's becoming a tradition in this team. It happened against Panathinaikos too, and those lack of concentration in final moments have made the team to fail in one of the main targets this season: to play the Final Four in Berlin.  

So now Unicaja has to learn how to face this last part of the season, since they already lost two titles within four days. They can only fight for ACB league, which right now is not very clear watching how Tau and Barça are playing. Partizan instead looks a brilliant future with young players and a coach who can take them by hand to the top. It's a matter of time.