Unicaja Malaga and Tau Vitoria will play the third final of the Supercopa ACB after beating DKV Joventut and Barcelona in a great atmosphere like the one that Malaga can create.

The first semifinal (Barcelona - Tau, 52-76) faced two of the more expensive European basketball rosters, but one of them (the one that has a 22 milion € budget) seemed to be still at home. Barcelona never entered the game and disappeared completly from court since minute 1. The Baskonian trio Prigioni-Planinic-Rakocevic controlled the 'tempo' of the game all the way untill the final second, well helped inside by newcomer Peker and Brazilian star Splitter, that did a fantastic job and made everybody forget about someone called Luis Scola (injured and out of the Torunament). Barcelona showed that continues building a big squad, but will need some time to play as a real team. But today there was no time for tests and an 'hungry' Tau simply destroyed Ivanovic project with an agressive defenseand a decent attack (not extraordinary, but Barca seemed unable to score, finishing first twenty minutes with poor 16 points). Problems continued in second period with Dusko without any cure for his 'insane men' that saw how Tau reached a +31 diference (67-36) in third quarter in a real basketball lesson that Perasovic boys gave for free to Winterthur F.C. Barcelona.

The other semifinal faced Unicaja Malaga and DKV Joventut (74-66) a revival of last ACB semifinals that finished in an agonic 5th game. This time, Aito players started game more concentrate and ready to win, but Malaga showed how hard they will be and changed the 'panorama' with a terrific Welsch well helped by World Champion Berni Rodriguez. But the Rudy-Barton duo started engines and with his points, Joventut took advantage on scorer. The Badalona defense was so good that left Scariolo players in only 7 points in second quarter. 30-35 at halftime. After some rest, game continued electric, with some high quality actions in both sides but with heat as main character: sweat forced lots of turnovers in both squads, but couldn't stop the good game of two good teams. Betts completed a good quarter with his defense, points and rebounds and Joventut reached a +8 in scorer (maximum of the night). Lights went down for Joventut that couldn't continue its good game and recived 14 points while scored only 2 in five minutes. A reaction arrived with Rubio on court, but 3 three-pointers (Carlos Jimenez, Berni Rodriguez and Carlos Cabezas) ended with Badalona options.   

22.9.2006