ESP - Prigioni-less Tau defeat Barca in ACB semi-final opener
Tau Ceramica overcame the recent loss of point guard Pablo Prigioni and beat Winterthur Barcelona 96-83 in the opening game of the ACB play-off semi-finals.
VITORIA (ACB) - Tau Ceramica overcame the recent loss of point guard
Pablo Prigioni and beat Winterthur Barcelona 96-83 in the opening game of the ACB
play-off semi-finals.
Argentina international Prigioni, the most valuable player of Tau's Copa del
Rey triumph over Pamesa Valencia earlier this season, discovered this week he is
suffering from an infection caused by a virus known as zytomegalovirus. He could
miss the rest of the season and the FIBA World Championship in Japan.
Croatian point guard Roko Leni-Ukic filled in admirably, playing almost 20
minutes, and Prigioni's countryman Luis Scola put forth another superb effort as
Tau took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five showdown.
Tau made their decisive surge midway through the second quarter, after Juan
Carlos Navarro had made a basket to trim the hosts' lead to 27-25.
Tiago Splitter scored and then Serkan Erdogan nailed a three for a 32-25 Tau lead.
Gianluca Basile replied with a three-pointer for Barca, but then Tau got
consecutive three-balls from Travis Hansen and Casey Jacobsen that pushed the
advantage to 38-28 and the Basque outfit stayed in control the rest of the way.
For Tau, Scola finished with a team-high 21 points and nine rebounds while
Jacobsen weighed in with 18 points.
Navarro had a game-high 23 points in defeat for Barca.
Game Two is in Vitoria on Sunday before the series shifts to Barcelona.
The other semi-final between UNICAJA and EuroCup champions DKV Joventut tips
off on Friday evening in Malaga.
By PA Sport, Exclusively for FIBA
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