Unicaja Malaga lived to fight another day by downing Valencia 79-71 in Game two of the EuroCup finals front of a sellout crowd of over 10,500 fans at Martin Carpena Arena on Friday.
The series is tied at 1-1 after both teams exchanged home wins but Valencia is set to host make-or-break Game 3 at Fuente de San Luis next Wednesday.
For Unicaja, they break a seven-game losing streak against Valencia who will still be heavily fancied to win what could be their fourth EuroCup title heading into Wednesday’s decider.
Jamar Smith led the winners with 20 points on 5/9 three-point shooting. Alen Omic added 12 points and 10 rebounds for Unicaja.
“This is a very important win for us,” said Omic.
“We will now take a day off, forget about this and prepare everything again to go back to Valencia and play like we did today. We played hard and got this great win. This is the first final in my career and I will be very happy if I win it.
“I will never forget this. Our team is very good, I like everything here. Malaga is a good city and the club has great people, great staff. When everything is good, you enjoy playing basketball.”
Guillem Vives led Valencia with 14 points.
