ESP - Spanish league review

Real Madrid roll past Unicaja

MADRID (Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto) – Real Madrid sent Unicaja Malaga crashing to another agonising defeat at the weekend.

Having recently failed to reach the Copa del Rey, Unicaja pushed CSKA Moscow hard in their Euroleague Top 16 game last week but lost in Russia.

In Madrid on Sunday, Unicaja led 51-50 but then collapsed in the fourth quarter as Ettore Messina’s men reeled off the first 12 points of the final period and romped to an 84-67 win.

Novica Velickovic scored the first five points in the run and after Darjus Lavrinovic made two free-throws, Sergio Llull buried a three-pointer and followed with his own pair from the charity stripe for a 62-51 advantage.

“It was a very important victory against a team that nearly won in Moscow four days ago,” Messina said afterwards. “They defended very aggressively and we had more turnovers than normal.”

Velickovic, the Serbia international who will play at the FIBA World Championship in Turkey, had 18 points for Madrid.

Meanwhile, leaders Regal Barcelona destroyed Gran Canaria 105-55 in one of the biggest blowouts of the season.

Juan Carlos Navarro of Spain had 24 points, including an impressive six-of-eight shooting effort from long range and Barca as a team drilled 16 of 26 from behind the arc.

Caja Laboral remained in second place in the standings following a 90-75 defeat of Meridiano Alicante. Tiago Splitter had a team-high 19 points in the winning cause while Pau Ribas added 17 and made good on all five of his three-point attempts.

FIBA