ESP - Tau start series with victory

VITORIA (ACB) - Tau Ceramica overcame the recent loss of point guard Pablo Prigioni to 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 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.

PA Sport