In  a horrible last quarter performance, Unicaja lost all chances of being in Vitoria next month. On the other hand, this win helps the Sevillian team to end the first half of the season in good shape.

During the first half Cajasol had a couple of critical moments, but they managed to overcome the difficult situation in which they were trapped because of the good game by the local team. Unicaja needed to win the game desperately to qualify for the Spanish Cup, a “must” target this season for Jasmin Repesa’s team after a bad last season. And it seemed that they were doing the right things. Cajasol couldn’t play its game, not being allowed to score easy baskets. Good for Unicaja.

But everything changed on the second half of the game. The visiting team found its place in the game while Unicaja started to get lost slowly, up to the point that in the final quarter they didn’t know how to react to the perfect zonal defense played by its rival. This was the key for Cajasol to win the game. During the last quarter they played a perfect defense and avoided Unicaja to score for several minutes, allowing the visiting team to get a 7 points lead that was never diminished. Bad luck for Unicaja, which could have been the only Andalusian representative in Vitoria.

A couple of things have changed in Cajasol since the beginning of the season. First of all, the team knows how to play. They know where they are strong and where not. They finally remembered that Luka Bogdanovic can shoot and that their only way to win is by defending hard, because they are not a team with lots of offensive talent. Maybe in certain moments, but no the whole game, because they only have a bunch of players to play high-level basketball. Second thing is that the General Manager finally found a player to score inside, somehow forgetting Paul Davis. So far the team only had Triguero to play as a true center, and he definitely can’t score. With this couple of fixed things, the team is right now one of the nicest teams to see in Spain.

70 – Unicaja (21+17+18+14): Calloway (8), Urtasun (9), Simon (15) Zoric (16), Vázquez (7) -starting five- Vidal (2), Panko (6), Williams (2), Dragic (3), Lima (2).

81 – Cajasol (16+21+17+27): Satoransky (8), Tepic (2), L. Williams (13), Holland (16), Balvin (7) -starting five- Triguero (1), Asbury (10), Sastre (0), Blakney (5), Bogdanovic (16), Burjanadze (3).