In an unexpected turn of events Basque side Caja Laboral swept Barcelona in the ACB finals in a game last night not suited for the faint hearted, proving once again that the Spanish league is years of light ahead of any other European League.
Although Caja Laboral had the upper hand in the greater part of the game and were leading even by five just a minute before the end of the game, Ricky Rubio stepped up big time for the Catalan side and the game went to overtime.
There it was Barcelona who took a small lead and looked ready to to escape with a win from Fernando Bruesa Arena but Ivanovic’ desperate move from the bench, like trusting Teletovic who was disappointing in the rest of the game, paid off and Caja Laboral cut Blaugrana’s lead to just one, less than ten seconds to go.
Then Caja Laboral players fouled Basile, who missed one of free throws and then with just seven and a half seconds to go San Emeterio made an incredible coast to coast and scored the tough layup and on top of that was fouled by Morris and with half a second to go, made the free throw to make the final score 79-78.
This was the club’s third ACB championship and a large portion of the glory should be credited to Dusko Ivanovic, who reached 409 games on ACB benches in a great fashion, while Tiago Splitter probably played his last game for the club.
Watch below a video from the game:
