Spanish League Finals, Game 2: June 13, 2009 - SPAIN - Welcome to EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL

May 20, 2013

Spanish League Finals, Game 2: June 13, 2009

The best-of-five Spanish League finals are tied after Tau Ceramica locked down its home court for a 75-67 victory over Regal FC Barcelona in Game 2 on Saturday. The series, now even at 1-1, heads to Barcelona for the next two games. Tau led throughout the second half, but didn't breathe easy until Igor Rakocevic's back-to-back triples with around 3 minutes suddenly pushed the difference to double digits and paved the way to victory. Rakocevic, the Euroleague's top scorer this season, paced the winners with 22 points, 8 of them in the closing minutes. Pete Mickeal added 19 points and 9 rebounds, while Pablo Prigioni drilled 16 points. Barcelona got 21 points from Juan Carlos Navarro, who hit 3 of his team's 11 three-point shots, but otherwise struggled, especially inside. Barcelona was outrebounded 40-34 and made only 14 of 37 two-pointers, or 37%. David Andersen added 9 points and 9 rebounds for the visitors, who also got 4 blocks from Fran Vazquez.

Tau signalled its intentions by busting out to a 5-0 lead on Rakocevic's first basket, but Barcelona quicky tied. The process repeated itself, at 9-5 on another Rakocevic basket and at 16-7 on a triple by Prigioni plus baskets by Mickeal and Will McDonald. Rakocevic's first triple meant the first double-digit lead, 19-9, which Barcelona lowered to 20-12 at the end of one quarter. Tau kept leading comfortably, 26-17, on two more three-point shots, by Mickeal and Prigioni, before Victor Sada and Ersan Ilyasova brought Barcelona roaring back with an 0-10 run to take a 26-27 lead. The advantage went back and forth as Barcelona stars Navarro and Andersen got into the act, while Rakocevic returned for Tau, but it took a three-point basket-plus-free throw 8 seconds before the half to leave a 33-33 scoreboard after 20 minutes. The lead-changing continued into the third quarter as Vazquez now paced Barcelona, but Mirza Teletovic surfaced with a triple to put Tau up 45-42. Tau's lead never topped 6 points before settling, thanks to baskets from Fernando San Emeterio and Sergi Vidal, at 54-49 after 30 minutes. Tiago Splitter, quiet until then, upped the difference to 60-52 with consecutive baskets midway through the final quarter, but Navarro kept Barcelona as close as 62-57 with 5 pionts in a row and under 4 minutes left. Then, in a span of 30 seconds, Rakocevic exploded with back-to-back bombs from downtown that made it 68-57. In response, Jaka Lakovic drilled 5 points in a row for Barcelona, making it 71-67 entering the final minute, but Prigioni was perfect from the line with 31 seconds left and Mickeal punished a Barcelona miss with a fastbreak dunk to send the Tau fans home happy - and wondering if they will see a Game 5 in Vitoria, too.

Finals Playoffs, best of 5 games

Record	Team	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3	Game 4	Game 5
1	Tau Ceramica (1)	80	75	June 16	June 18	*June 20
1	Regal FC Barcelona (2)	82	67	-	-	-

Finals Playoffs round games
Game 1	Tau Ceramica vs. Regal FC Barcelona	80-82	June 11
Game 2	Tau Ceramica vs. Regal FC Barcelona	75-67	June 13
Game 3	Regal FC Barcelona vs. Tau Ceramica	-	June 16
Game 4	Regal FC Barcelona vs. Tau Ceramica	-	June 18
Game 5	Tau Ceramica vs. Regal FC Barcelona	-	*June 20