ESP – No stopping Barca as Basile, Vazquez lead sweep of Unicaja

MALAGA (ACB) - Regal Barcelona trailed in the fourth quarter on Tuesday night but the deepest and most talented team in Spain refused to lose and completed a 3-0 sweep of Unicaja Malaga to advance to the ACB play-off finals.

Former Italy international Gianluca Basile buried five three-balls on his way to a game-high 20 points as Barca won 82-73 in Malaga.

Unicaja, who played very well away from home in the first two games of the series, led 68-64 midway through the last quarter after a three-pointer from Gary Neal and a basket from Berni Rodriguez.

Barcelona, as has been the case in nearly every game this season, had the answer.

Fran Vazquez sparked a decisive 7-0 run with a basket that left Barca on top 71-68.

After Unicaja's Saul Blanco reduced the arrears to 71-70, Barcelona's Ricky Rubio scored to start another 7-0 run that left Xavier Pascual's team in command.

Erazem Lorbek and Pete Mickael poured in 16 points each for Barca and Juan Carlos Navarro added 14.

Vazquez, whose chances of returning to Spain's national team shot up exponentially on Tuesday when Pau Gasol announced he will not play this summer at the FIBA World Championship, had a game-high 10 rebounds to go with his six points.

Unicaja got 18 points from Neal and 14 from Rodriguez.

Great Britain center Joel Freeland weighed in with 10 points and five rebounds.

Pascual, the Barcelona coach, said: "I am extremely satisfied because we have arrived to all the finals of all competitions.

"That was our aim. Winning all of them is a different story.

"There are players that haven´t played much like (Victor) Sada or Basile but today they have done really well.

"We made a few mistakes during the game due to the intensity of our rivals but I am very satisfied with the team.

Barca have already won the Supercopa, the Copa del Rey and the Euroleague.

They await the winner of the other semi-final between Caja Laboral and Real Madrid.

Caja lead that series 2-0 heading into Wednesday's Game 3 at Madrid.

"Caja Laboral and Real Madrid are very good sides and will make life difficult for us," Pascual said.

"We will try to prepare it in the best possible way."

Navarro prefers to face Real Madrid.

"It´s the best for the fans although Caja Laboral so far deserves to be in the final," Navarro said.

FIBA