ESP - Tau Ceramica reign in Spain over Unicaja in Supercopa

MALAGA (Supercopa) - Tau Ceramica claimed the ACB Supercopa title on Saturday with a tense 83-78 victory over reigning Spanish champions Unicaja Malaga.

Tau had been swept aside 3-0 by Unicaja in last season's play-off finals but they gained a measure of revenge with victory in the Supercopa, the traditional curtain raiser for the new ACB season.

The game went to the wire and Unicaja put up two three-pointers in the final 20 seconds which, had either been successful, would have tied the contest at 81-81.

But both Carlos Jimenez and Kostas Vasileiadis missed with their efforts and Tau went down to the other end to seal the win with two free throws from summer signing Igor Rakocevic.

Tiago Splitter was again the main man for Tau, the Brazil ace leading all scorers with 19 points as well as hauling down a team-high five rebounds to finish with the MVP award.

Fred House, with a 16-point haul that included a 100% record from his hat-trick of three-point attempts, provided good support for his team-mate while Rakocevic added 15 points.

Unicaja, playing in front of their own fans in Malaga, had a dismal night with their long-range shooting, summed up by their two failed attempts late on.

Overall they successfully converted just 26% of their 26 three-point shots with only Slovenian international Erazem Lorbek, who made three of three, looking the part.

Unicaja were paced by two of their Spanish gold medal contingent from this summer's FIBA World Championship.

Berni Rodriguez scored a team-high 18 points and hauled down three rebounds, while Jimenez added 14 points and seven rebounds in a losing cause.

From Mike Perez, PA Sport, Madrid, Exclusively for FIBA