Round eight of the Liga Endesa might very well be Barcelona’s wake up call as they made a statement against Zaragoza. Estudiantes climb off the bottom of the league and Real Madrid stay unbeaten and top of the pile.

Barcelona have endured a subpar start to the season, both domestically and in the Euroleague but Sunday’s 73-50 hammering of Zaragoza at home might be the start of their turnaround.

The Catalan side excelled in every department with Ante Tomic in unstoppable form as he grabbed a double-double of 17 points and 13 rebounds in the win. Juan Carlos Navarro added 15 points as he reached another milestone in his extraordinary career by draining his 1000th three-pointer in the Spanish league.

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Barcelona go to 6-2 with that win, which takes them to third place in the Liga Endesa. Zaragoza, led by Pedro Llompart’s 8 points are now at 4-4 and drop to ninth in the table.

Estudiantes broke a five-game losing streak by beating La Bruixa d’Or 104-103 in overtime to lift them off the bottom of the league.

A lay-up from Jaime Fernandez with 0.5 seconds remaining in the extra session handed Estudiantes the win and made it two losses in the Spanish capital this season for the team from Manresa.

Joaquim Colom led the winners with 20 points with Marko Banic scoring 18. Josh Asselin led La Bruixa d’Or with 19.

Valencia overcame Gran Canaria 74-70 to stay second in the table. Liga Endesa’s leading scorer Justin Doellman was again outstanding for the winners with a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds.

After starting the season 5-0, Gran Canaria now find themselves at 5-3 after this defeat.

Valencia though trail leaders Real Madrid, who had no problem overcoming Cajasol Seville 97-62 thanks to a dominant first half.

Sergio Llull led Madrid with 15 points as a 27-16 first quarter was extended to 50-33 at half-time and the hosts were already dead and buried. Real are a perfect 8-0 this season.

Other games in the league this saw Bilbao comfortably see off basement side Valladolid 81-57.

Raul Lopez was in fine form as his game-high 19 points gave Bilbao the win but they remain in 16th spot on a 2-6 record. Valladolid are 1-7.

Unicaja Malaga ousted Canarias 88-73 to move up to fourth. Zoran Dragic made it a good week for him as he paced the winners with 18 points.

Laboral Kutxa eventually got the better of Murcia 98-90 but needed a strong fourth quarter to do so. 28 points from Tibor Pleiss helped the Euroleague side move up to fifth in the standings while Murcia drop to 12th.

Fuenlabrada secured a 79-76 overtime win at Joventut Badalona. Nik Cochran sent the game to overtime for the Catalan side with a heavily guarded lay-up but Fuenlabrada held on to secure the win. Marcus Arnold had 21 for the victors.

Monbus also won away as they beat Gipuzkoa 67-63. Mario Delas led all scorers with 16 points.