Spanish League Playoffs, Quarterfinals, Game 3: May 20, 2008
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The Spanish League semifinals are ready to rock after ULEB Cup champ DKV Joventut and Final Four regular Tau Ceramica won do-or-die third games at home in the playoff quarterfinals on Tuesday. In what was a replay of the ULEB Cup title game, Joventut outlasted Akasvayu Girona 86-75 despite losing all of a 15-point lead midway through the third quarter. After Girona tied the score entering the final quarter, Rudy Fernandez responded with 14 of his game-high 24 points to put Joventut in the clear. Tau suffocated Pamesa Valencia, another ULEB Cup Final Eight team, by 82-61 in Game 3 of their quarterfinal finale. Tau enjoyed double-digit leads from the first quarter onwards. Igor Rakocevic was Tau's big gun with 21 points. Tau will face off against Unicaja in one best-of-three semifinals, while Joventut will face AXA F.C. Barcelona. Unicaja had swept Real Madrid 2-0 in their quarterfinal, while Barcelona did the same to Bilbao.
Joventut went to Jan Jagla for all of its early points in Game 3, but Marc Gasol's dunk soon tied it 6-6 for Girona. Fernandez rattled in a pair of three-point shots to reestablish a 12-6 lead that Joventut stretched to 25-17 after a quarter. Fernandez had 10 points by the midway point of the second quarter, and Pau Ribas downed 3 triples among 11 points in the next 5 minutes. Only the fact that Gasol soon warmed up let Girona stay as close as 46-34 at halftime. The visitors saw their backs hit the wall midway through the third quarter, when a fourth three-pointer by Ribas made it 57-41 for Joventut. Girona responded with a 0-15 blast that featured Ivan Radenovic, Victor Sada and Arriel McDonald helping Gasol. By the end of 30 minutes, the visitors had tied 59-59 on a long-range buzzer-beater by Sada. It was still close, 62-61 with 8 minutes left, when Fernandez lit up again. His 4 points in a row before baskets by Lubos Barton and Ricky Rubio suddenly made it 70-61. Girona got to within 5 points again twice, the last on a three-point play by Radenovic with just over 2 minutes left, but managed just a single point more as Joventut raced ahead and into the semifinals. After Fernandez, Ribas was Joventut's second-best scorer, with 18 points, while Rubio had 10. Gasol had a double-double of 23 points, 10 rebounds for Girona, while Fernando San Emeterio pumped in 16 points.
Tau saw Rakocevic and Tiago Splitter set the pace by sharing all the points of an early 8-2 advantage. Pamesa tied it up before Tau raced to its first double-digit lead as Pete Mickeal, Pablo Prigioni and Mirza Teletovic joined the scoring on the way to a 25-12 score after 10 minutes. Tau's defense smothered Pamesa for almost 3 mintues of the second quarter as the difference reached 30-12. Rakocevic returned to establish the highest lead so far, 40-21, before Stanko Barac and Dejan Milojevic trimmed it to 40-25 at the break. A technical foul on Mickeal let Shammond Williams hit 4 perfect free throws for Pamesa, cutting the difference to 42-29, but it was a false alarm. Splitter and Rakocevic combined for 8 quick points to make it 50-31 and Pamesa never came up for air again. Rakocevic got scoring help from Splitter, with 16 points, while James Singleton added 12 and Prigioni 11. Pamesa had no go-to scorer as Milojevic led the way with 12 points while Williams and Ruben Douglas added 10 each.
| Quarterfinal Playoffs, best of 3 games |
| Record | Team | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | | 0 | Real Madrid (1) | 73 | 86 | x | | 2 | Unicaja (8) | 89 | 88 | x | | 2 | Tau Ceramica(4) | 87 | 95 | 82 | | 1 | Pamesa Valencia (5) | 79 | 100 | 61 | | 2 | DKV Joventut (2) | 85 | 83 | 86 | | 1 | Akasvayu Girona (7) | 72 | 91 | 75 | | 2 | AXA FC Barcelona (3) | 75 | 83 | x | | 0 | iurbentia Bilbao (6) | 64 | 92 | x |
| Quarterfinal games | | Game 1 | Real Madrid vs. Unicaja | 73-89 | May 15 | | Game 1 | DKV Joventut vs. Akasvayu Girona | 85-72 | May 16 | | Game 1 | AXA FC Barcelona vs. iurbentia Bilbao | 75-64 | May 16 | | Game 1 | Tau Ceramica vs. Pamesa Valencia | 87-79 | May 16 | | Game 2 | Unicaja vs. Real Madrid | 88-86 | May 17 | | Game 2 | Akasvayu Girona vs. DKV Joventut | 91-83 | May 18 | | Game 2 | iurbentia Bilbao vs. AXA FC Barcelona | 83-92 | May 18 | | Game 2 | Pamesa Valencia vs. Tau Ceramica | 100-95 | May 18 | | Game 3 | DKV Joventut vs. Akasvayu Girona | 86-75 | May 20 | | Game 3 | Tau Ceramica vs. Pamesa Valencia | 82-61 | May 20 |
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