Quarterfinal draw
Barça had to suffer but, in the end, in a heart attack extension and after an opportune robbery by
Hanga
, he sealed a victory against Zenit (81-78) that allows him to travel to Russia with the series even, but still with the obligation to add at least one victory as a visitor. The Catalans again found
their most outstanding player
in
Brandon Davies
(22 points, 33 PIR), while, on the part of the Russian team,
Kevin Pangos
waited almost until the end to bring out all his virtues (23 points, 19 valuation). Virtues that, this time, were not enough to sign a new surprise that flew over the Palau Blaugrana for a long time.
As happened in the unfortunate second quarter of the first game, Zenit managed to drown out Barça's attack in the first ten minutes. The Catalans, however, also took good note of the bleeding that
Xavi Pascual's team
subjected them to
and put the batteries to prevent them from opening an excessive gap on the scoreboard.
Black
was perhaps the most prominent of the Russian team in a first quarter in which Pangos did not show the brilliance of Tuesday, but, even so, he managed to get his team to command by three points in the light at the end of the first period (13-16) .
The difficulties of scoring for the Catalans loomed like black clouds over their heads.
Especially when Black, again, pulled on intensity to thwart his defensive actions over and over again.
When everything seemed to be looking worse, however, Brandon Davies appeared again as a stronghold of the locals.
His, to a large extent, was the merit of Barça reaching the break nine points ahead of their rival (38-29) after responding with a 12-0 run to a visiting escape attempt.
The one from Philadelphia gave it his all, at both ends of the court.
And in fact, he laid the foundations for the local reaction with a steal on Pangos that ended in a mate and an additional free kick.
Maximum equality
Zenit, far from throwing in the towel, fought back after the break to practically cancel the Barça attack and go to the fourth period with the score level (48-48) thanks, above all, to the fact of recovering a long-awaited aim in the triples.
Thomas
, in this case, emerged as the most prominent of
Xavi Pascual's
.
Pangos, somewhat irregular, finally appeared in the theoretical last quarter to, despite some failure, end up granting the arrival of a new tie (66-66) and with it an extension that, with suspense, would fall on the side blaugrana.
With
Nikola Mirotic
perfectly annulled by the Russians, Higgins was the one who appeared as the best squire of a Davies who continued to show his best clothes to, from the free throw line, go putting the steps of a very long-suffering Barça victory that a final robbery of Hanga precisely on Pangos he was in charge of making it final (81-78).
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