ESP - Winterthur Barcelona get Roko'd in ACB semi-final

MADRID (ACB) - Tau Ceramica are playing as if their motto is “addition by subtraction”.

In a remarkable turn of events, the club in the Basque country have bounced back from losing Argentinian international point guard Pablo Prigioni to win two consecutive games against Winterthur Barcelona, with Sunday’s 71-66 triumph giving them a 2-0 lead in the ACB semi-final showdown.

Prigioni, the MVP of their Copa del Rey win over Pamesa Valencia earlier this season and an inspiration in their run to the Euroleague Final Four, discovered earlier in the 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.

Prigioni is to undergo another test on Monday, but Tau are playing as if they do not need their star at the moment.

The primary beneficiary in terms of playing time has been Roko Leni-Ukic, the Croatian point guard who saw limited action at last summer’s EuroBasket before coming off the bench and nearly leading his side to victory over Spain in the quarter-finals.

Ukic is a great talent, which is why the Toronto Raptors selected him 41st overall last summer in the NBA draft.

The 22-year-old had a game-high 21 points on Sunday on eight of 10 shooting, including three of four from the arc. He had 10 points in the Game One victory.

Barcelona’s ACB MVP, Spanish international Juan Carlos Navarro, finished with 19 points.

Tau took a 17-12 first-quarter lead against the side they beat in the third place game at the Euroleague Final Four, and kept their noses in front the rest of the way.

Kornel David, the Hungarian power forward/center, had 11 points and both Tiago Splitter of Brazil and American Casey Jacobsen weighed in with 10 points.

Splitter also had seven rebounds.

Luis Scola, one of the big names headed to the FIBA World Championship with Argentina this summer, was relatively quiet by his standards, finishing with nine points and five rebounds.

For Barcelona, a season of great promise is in danger of petering out with no silverware, something that was incomprehensible before the season when they loaded up with European stars from Italy, Greece and Russia.

They even appointed Dusko Ivanovic, the former Tau boss, as their new coach after Ivanovic’s Tau side had lost to Real Madrid in last year's best-of-five ACB finals.

Now they have to win the next two semi-final games at home to stay alive, and then hope the momentum can carry them to victory at Vitoria and into the finals.

Don't count on Tau allowing that to happen.

Unicaja beat DKV

In Malaga, DVK Joventut fell for the second time in the ACB play-off semi-finals at Unicaja.
Unicaja, who finished top of the Spanish standings during the regular season, pulled away for a 76- 61 triumph.

DKV must win at home on Friday in Game Three to extend the series or Unicaja advance to the finals.

The EuroCup winners led 23-22 after the first quarter but the hosts took control over the next 10 minutes and held a 40-32 advantage by half-time.

After three quarters, Sergio Scariolo's team were still in front at 53-44 and they held the initiative for the remainder of the game.

For Unicaja, Stephane Risacher and Spanish national team star Jorge Garbosa each poured in 18 points.

Alex Mumbru had 13 points and Lubos Barton 12 for DKV.

By Jeff  Taylor, PA Sport Exclusively for FIBA