EUROLEAGUE – Cabezas late show lifts Unicaja past Barcelona

MALAGA (Euroleague) - Unicaja Malaga, Partizan Belgrade, Aris TT Bank and Tau Ceramica all scraped narrow wins in the Euroleague Top 16 on Wednesday evening.

Carlos Cabezas, the Spain international guard who will fight for a place in his country’s Olympic squad again this summer, came off the bench with 12 seconds left to make a lay-up right before the end for his first points of the game to give Unicaja a 61-60 win in Malaga.

The points were the first for Cabezas, in fact, in the Top 16 after injury prevented him from playing in the previous games.

The result left both sides with 2-2 records.

Partizan (2-2) followed up their big win over Efes Pilsen last week with another home triumph over Montepaschi Siena (3-1) in Euroleague Group D.

Milt Palacio scored 14 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter as Partizan, who trailed by nine late in the third quarter, battled back to win.

The 26 points were a season-high for Palacio.

Greek outfit Aris won their game in Group E by holding off Fenerbahce Ulker 60-59 in Istanbul.

Willie Solomon had a chance to win the game for Fener (2-2) before the buzzer but his lay-up stayed out.

Aris (1-3) got 18 points and eight rebounds from Jeremiah Massey.

Tau Ceramica improved to 4-0 in Group E with an 87-84 win in Vitoria over Lietuvos Rytas (1-3).

Argentina’s Pablo Prigioni and Croatia’s Zoran Planinic each scored 16 points for Tau.

FIBA