ESP – Barcelona cap fantastic year with ACB title

BARCELONA (ACB) - Barcelona will have a fiesta for the rest of the year after Xavier Pascual’s basketball team beat TAU Ceramica in the ACB Finals to give the club another title in 2009.

Less than a month after Primera Liga-winning Barcelona FC’s rout of Manchester United in football’s Champions League final, the hoopsters captured the domestic title with Thursday’s 90-77 Game 4 triumph over TAU.

Spain national team star Juan Carlos Navarro and Australia international David Andersen combined for 37 points in the decisive win.

Veteran guard Navarro, who has yet to say if he will play for Spain this summer at the EuroBasket in Poland said: "I believe we deserved this victory for the game we have displayed throughout the season.

“We came close to success in the (Euroleague) Final Four but now, finally, we have the title.”

Barcelona reached the Final Four in Berlin but lost to CSKA Moscow in the Semi-Finals before beating Olympiacos in the third-place game.

Navarro spent the 2007-08 campaign in the NBA with the Memphis Grizzlies but wanted to come back to his home, Barcelona, for different reasons.

The main objective was to win championships.

“I returned to this team to win titles and having won the ACB League title means that I end the season with a great taste in my mouth," he said.

Navarro was voted MVP of the ACB Finals.

Dusko Ivanovic, who was sacked as Barcelona coach last season and appointed boss of TAU for the second time in his career last summer, did not hide his bitterness after Game 4.

"I have to congratulate Barcelona, who has won this series with a lot of luck, especially in the opening game,” he said.

His former player at Barca, Gianluca Basile, hit a game-winning three-pointer at the end of Game 1.

“I want to thank my players for their sacrifice and their great season,” Ivanovic said.

Barca coach Xavi Pascual, who replaced Ivanovic on an interim basis but was then handed the job full-time and has quickly established himself as one of the top coaches in Europe, said: "We are delighted to have won this title but we are aware that we've had to play very well to beat Tau Ceramica.

“I am happy to have won with my team having dished out 20 assists because that proves that this team always tries to help each other and is united."

FIBA