Unicaja make it four wins from four

Unicaja continued their excellent resurgence in form with a narrow 77-74 home victory over Catalan side Divina Seguros Joventut in their league game on Sunday afternoon.

The result reinforced the rich vein of form that the Malaga side are currently enjoying, and which they hope to continue when they face Lokomotiv-Kuban in the EuroCup semi-final in Krasnodar on Tuesday evening.

The hosts began the match with the same rhythm and intensity that was on show against Bayern Munich in their EuroCup quarter-final triumph last Wednesday, qualities which saw them race into an 8-0 lead. Unfortunately, they failed to maintain the levels for very long and consequently let Joventut come back strongly into the game, as Omi in particular committed several fouls, with his exertions on Wednesday night seemingly catching up with him.

Joventut's pivot Jordan profited greatly from Unicaja's defensive lapses, as he enjoyed the freedom of the home side's half of the court as neither Omi nor Musli were able to stop the American. His tenth point forced Plaza to call a time out in the 15th minute as Unicaja's lead had been cut to just one point. Despite the changes, which included Omi being replaced by Okouo, the head coach's team talk seemed to have little effect as his side continued to give the ball away cheaply and allowed their opponents to score easy points, frailties which saw the visitors go into a surprise 36-31 half-time lead.

The break saw Plaza change tactics again as he aimed to sure up Unicaja's defence by putting Alberto Díaz in the quintet. This change in system seemed to work as Adam Waczyski led Unicaja to score nine points without reply at the start of the third quarter. The visitors refused to lie down and reverted to three-point shots. Accurate efforts from Bogdanovi, Sàbat and Vidal saw Joventut weather the Unicaja fightback, but only for a short while.

Unicaja's defence became a lot more solid and in attack Plaza's side scored an incredible 34 points, which was more than they had managed in the first two quarters put together, to put themselves into a commanding 65-52 lead.

Having extended the gap in the scoreline to 17 points, Plaza decided to take off some of his key players such as Brooks, a move which sparked a reaction from Joventut. Plaza was forced to turn back to his stalwarts in Musli, Díaz and Smith, but even they could not prevent the Catalan side from scoring thirteen points to ensure a tight finish to the game.

With less than two minutes remaining and the score 75-72, Brooks, who was brought back on, scored a two-pointer of his own after being set up by Suárez to confirm Unicaja's win and ensure confidence remains high with a gruelling trip to Krasnodar up next.