The Malaga team also surpasses Tenerife after leaving Barca and Madrid on the road to win the cup 18 years later
Unicaja culminated in the Palau Olímpic in Badalona, one of the greatest achievements in the Copa del Rey. Barça and Real Madrid were already on their list of victims. The two greats are eliminated by the same team for the first time in the entire ACB era. However, the team from Malaga had yet to take the final step to write their name in history and win their second title 18 years later.
Tenerife was the last stumbling block. And what a trap A very established project, forged over a slow fire over more than a decade of sustainable growth and with very clear characteristics. The man from Unicaja, who achieved fame almost twenty years ago with a League and a Cup, has found his passion for basketball in Malaga after several seasons of fear.
The unexpected duel in the groups prior to the tournament, without Real Madrid or Barça after fourteen years, was settled by a choral performance by Unicaja. It outweighed the good performance of Marcelinho Huertas and Giorgi Shermadini, the fantastic duo of Tenerife veterans. Only Jaime Fernández accompanied them and the intersection of author teams, cut by the boards of Txus Vidorreta and Ibon Navarro, ended with the victory of the second, who arrives last but has turned from top to bottom into a champion Unicaja.
It was not possible to expect anything other than a match of maximum equality and the first set confirmed it, with a result of 16-17 and very choral performances from both teams. The names of the final were still waiting for their moment.
Fitipaldo (3), Salin (7), Cook (3), Doornekamp (3) and Shermadini (20) -starting five-, Huertas (21), Jaime Fernández (16), Sergio Rodríguez, Abromaitis (3), Diagne and War (4).
Perry (6), Carter (17), Barreiro (8), Ejim (3) and Kravish (8) -starting five- Alberto Díaz (6), Saint-Supery, Brizuela (7), Djedovic, Kalinoski (14), Will Thomas (5) and Osetkowski (9).
Huertas and Shermadini were expected. As soon as the second quarter began, the Brazilian point guard clocked a three-pointer from home under clock pressure and the second was polishing his dance moves in the area. They were joined by a good version of Jaime Fernández. With the green troops Alberto Díaz, who, in addition to being an elite defender, is also a real all-rounder who can shoot very well, as he demonstrated with two triples.
The equalizer was broken by Doornekamp with a goal beyond 6.75 and the chicharrero arreón took a seven-point lead (33-26). The gigantic killer of the cup had to react, the wonder team was able to leave Barça and Real Madrid on the road, and they did so forcefully to equalize the final (36-36). Only a very long triple and on the horn of the magician Marcelinho Huertas maintained the Canarian initiative during the break.
The green staging after the break was very good, with those classic minutes of inspiration from Darío Brizuela. Command of the game changed hands in favor of the Andalusian team, but it was a mirage as Shermadini had no intention of letting the “great night” happen that Txus Vidorreta had spoken about in the final pass preview. Marcelinho Huertas, his buddy from a thousand battles, was also aware. Bad news for Unicaja, again in the slipstream.
He reached a maximum income of 9 Tenerife (56-47), before Tyson Carter, a devil with a baby face on the parquet, avoided the insular demarcation and pushed the title fight back to the maximum with ten points in a sigh.
A ten minute final. That was the landscape at the Olímpic after nearly seven basketball games of maximum emotion. The Copa del Rey in Badalona could not have ended otherwise. Carter continued to increase his numbers, with Kalinoski as his favored ally, and Unicaja took the helm of the finals.
The Malaga team added more and more actors in their favour. Barreiro hit three; also Osetkowski, performer against Madrid and gray until the moment when he scored three to make it 69-77 and put Tenerife in charge. The green tide erupted in the stands. The icing on the cake of one of the greatest achievements in Copa del Rey history was close at hand. In it, Alberto Díaz made up for his free-kick mistake with what he knows best on the field, defending.
Six points with one minute remaining was a treasure for Unicaja, but not enough in fast-paced basketball to claim victory. Osetkowski, already final in the semi-final version, got oil with an invaluable rebound. That decisive capture gave way to Shermadini’s unsportsmanlike capture that buried the Canary options. There was no time for reaction. The epic of the heroic Unicaja was complete. It will be remembered for a long time.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
