ESP – Caja Laboral’s San Emeterio stuns Barcelona in OT to clinch title

VITORIA (ACB) – The basketball-mad city of Vitoria witnessed one of the most exciting finishes in Spanish basketball history on Tuesday night as Caja Laboral edged Regal Barcelona in overtime to capture the ACB crown.

Dusko Ivanovic’s team capped an amazing ACB play-offs with a heart-stopping 79-78 win with Spanish national team hopeful Fernando San Emeterio sealing victory just 0.5 seconds from the end of the extra period with a three-point play.

After Italian Gianluca Basile made the first but missed the second of two free-throws with 7.5 seconds remaining to give Barca a two-point lead, San Emeterio grabbed the rebound, raced down the court and blew past Basile in the lane before making a reverse lay-up.

On the play, Barcelona's Terence Morris, who swatted Lior Eliyahu's shot at the end of regulation to send the game to overtime, tried to block San Emeterio's attempt but instead fouled him.

The 26-year-old San Emeterio went to the charity stripe and sank the free-throw to give Vitoria one of its finest-ever moments and also end Barca’s hopes of a fourth trophy this season.

"Tonight proves that reality is more beautiful than dreams," Caja coach Dusko Ivanovic said.

"I think if anyone deserved to make the final basket, that was San Emeterio, for his work from beginning to end."

While San Emeterio is hoping that his hard work, and the Spanish title, will have earned him a chance to play for Spain at the FIBA World Championship, two of his Caja Laboral teammates that will be in Turkey are Tiago Splitter, the ACB's most valuable player this season, and his fellow Brazilian Marcelo Huertas.

Splitter was voted MVP of the ACB finals after Caja Laboral knocked off a team that had looked unbeatable for most of the season.

"This has been incredible," Splitter said.

"No one gave anything for us and we have arrived to this point.

"The group has had a lot of faith because we knew if we played at the same level as them, we could beat them.

"Today we played well, with more faith than them.

"We have won with an incredible basket from Fernando.

"I don't know if Lior's (Eliyahu) basket was one or (basket interference) not, but we came a little bit shaken to overtime. Perhaps that is why we came out with more will to fight until the end."

Video replay showed that Morris had made a great block of Eliyahu's shot.

Barca won the Supercopa, the Copa del Rey and the Euroleague but their season unraveled at the worst possible time.

The Barcelona players and coach Xavi Pascual will go into the summer knowing they missed an opportunity to go down as one of the greatest teams in European basketball history.

Ricky Rubio did his utmost to give Barcelona a chance to win on Tuesday.

After committing a costly turnover at the end of Barcelona's 70-69 Game 2 defeat, the Spain national team point guard came back and led Barca to within touching distance of a Game 4 with 14 points, four assists and eight rebounds.

"It's difficult to value this year because we have stained what was otherwise a great season," he said.

"In this final, we had more bench depth than Caja Laboral but we didn't take advantage."

Barcelona's Juan Carlos Navarro was also full of regret.

"We have won two titles in big competitions but to finish like this is bad," he said.

"In this final, we have made mistakes and this game we lost because of small details.

"I think we lost the series in the two games in Barcelona, not today."

Israel international Eliyahu had an awesome game for Caja Laboral with 18 points while Navarro also finished with 18 for Barca.

Pete Mickael, who played for Caja Laboral and left for Barca last summer, ended up with 16 points.

Erazem Lorbek, a member of the all-tournament team at last year’s EuroBasket with Slovenia, didn’t have a good series.

He finished with nine points and four rebounds in Game 3 but was well short with a crucial jump hook that could have put the game out of reach with 30 seconds to go in overtime.

Then at the other end, he allowed Caja Laboral’s Mirza Teletovic to drive past him with ease on the left and dunk to close the gap to just one point.

That set the stage for the foul on Basile with 7.5 seconds remaining, before San Emeterio won the game for Caja Laboral.

FIBA