Sito Alonso surprised the rookie Xavi Albert and with a zone defense for many minutes he achieved victory in La Fonteta. UCAM Murcia now has a unique opportunity to reach the ACB semi-finals for the first time in its history. A victory on Wednesday on their court would definitively knock down Valencia Basket. The oldest fans in the stands had a deja vu and remembered what happened 20 years ago, in 2004, when Sergio Scariolo did something similar at Fonteta. After two minutes of play he put Unicaja in the zone and took the fifth game of that quarterfinal tie.
Albert did not expect such an approach, but Sito Alonso knew that his rival does not have an abundance of shooters and with this zone defense he brought out this lack and, at the same time, protected his weakened interior game. Valencia, with Chris Jones injured with an ankle, a very intense defense and many failures in free throws, ended up surrendering to the brilliance as a strategist of the university team’s coach.
Radebaugh, with the rage of a spiteful man, went after the taronja hoop and scored 13 points in the second quarter. Valencia received 48 points before the break. Murcia exploited its most limited resources much better and even enjoyed very good minutes from Fabián Flores, a 2.11m tall and 19 year old. Valencia still managed to get hooked (72-75 with 5m40s left), but Kurucs emerged to score two triples that were a blow for the locals.
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