An unleashed Unicaja returns to the semifinals of the ACB

A victory achieved against a packed Martín Carpena who celebrated that his team to be among the top four of the ACB again, something that had not happened since 2017precisely when they eliminated Tenerife with a 2-1 aggregate.

Lenovo Tenerife’s three consecutive triples in their first attacks demonstrated the great initial display of Txus Vidorreta’s team, who had to win yes or yes to force the third game, but their great staging ended up being a mirage.

A frantic game was lived in Malaga, from rebounds to the clash with a physical game and very close to the post: these teams are much more than what their great shooters say, it is also consistency, effort and points in the paint.

In that initial confrontation, Tenerife emerged victorious, forcing Ibon Navarro to call a time-out with 13-22 in the first quarter, a result that did not change until the second act, the result of errors in Unicaja’s shot, many of them forced by the good Canarian defense.

Passion, mixed with success, was left by Unicaja for the start of the second turn, with five consecutive points from Tyler Kalinoski and a triple by Dylan Osetkowski that ignited a Carpena packed to the brim with fans (21-22).

Between technical fault and track-stand tension, Unicaja emerged with its meteoric versionthe one that he normally finds in his pavilion and that usually brings devastating partials.

Thus, with several blows from the outside, Unicaja went on to win by four points (27-23), and it was now Txus Vidorreta who scolded his team in the dead time to try to get them to return to the game.

He turned to Gio Shermadini, who was a doubt until the last moment, but the formula to get the MVP of the Endesa League did not come to fruition immediately (he finished with only three points) and Unicaja continued scoring compulsivelyleading the charge until he interrupted the break after a second quarter in which he scored 37 points and only conceded 14 (50-36).

The Lenovo Tenerife entered somewhat sleepy after the break, overwhelmed by the stage and unable to stop the bleeding; with Kendrick Perry as conductor and a band of surgical finesse behind him, the Unicaja began to have fun (68-46).

Was an almost impossible mission for Lenovo Tenerife, which had to come back 22 points in less than 15 minutesseeing what the statistics said about his rival: 80 percent shooting from two and also good percentages from two points.

The last quarter was already a mere formality that Txus Vidorreta’s team had to go through, aware that going 20 down with four minutes to go, defeat was already written.

The context already he invited the players of both teams, but above all from Unicaja, to inflate their statisticssuch as the top scorer of the game, Tyler Kalinoski, who came out with a standing ovation (21 points), as well as Perry for his 16 points and a PIR of 20.

Ibon Navarro’s team meet in the semifinals of the Endesa League final phase against the winner of the tie between Barça and Valencia Basket, which, for the moment, the culé team wins 1-0.