Unicaja dominate Murcia in Game 1 of Spanish showdown

MALAGA (Spain) - In Game 1 of the Quarter-Final series between Spanish rivals Unicaja and UCAM Murcia, the hosts held the latter to their second-lowest point total of the 2022-23 Basketball Champions League season.

Ibon Navarro's group put on a dominant display of team basketball in their 83-67 wire-to-wire victory.

Turning point: Unicaja jumped out to an early 23-10 lead after one quarter and six players had already scored for the home team at the first buzzer. It was more of the same for the rest of the game as they were able to extend their lead by as many as 30 in the second half on the way to their big win.

Game hero: Unicaja's balance was on full display as six players scored at least 8 points, but it was Dario Brizuela who led the team with 19 points along with 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals for a game-high 21 efficiency.

The 28-year-old guard shot 7-of-13 from the field and 2-of-5 from beyond the arc.

 

Stats don't lie: It's hard to win games when you only convert 6-of-27 shots from three-point range, and that was the case for Murcia tonight. Murcia also only dished out 10 assists while committing 16 turnovers, and on the flip side, Unicaja had 17 assists and only seven turnovers.

Unicaja also turned Murcia's 16 turnovers into 23 points.

Bottom line: Unicaja gained the upper hand and now lead 1-0 in the best-of-three Quarter-Finals series. Murcia will be the home team in Game 2 on Wednesday April 12 where they will need a win in order to stay alive and force a Game 3.

 

Murcia's Thaddus McFadden scored 9 points tonight and has now scored a total of 759 points in the BCL, the fourth most in league history. On the all-time scoring list, he just passed Miro Bilan (758) and Tyrus McGee (751).

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