MIES (Switzerland) - When you see your 18-game winning streak coming to an unexpected end, you can either come back stronger or experience even more suffering.
Unicaja are entering their fourth consecutive Quarter-Finals in the BCL, and they have everything to lose. On the other side, Pallacanestro Reggiana are willing to take everything out of it.
It's the clash between reigning champions, expected to come back to the Final Four, and the ultimate underdogs.
How did they get here?
Unicaja have been one of the early favorites since the Regular Season, having claimed the trophy in Belgrade in 2024. They were also coming off their first FIBA Intercontinental Cup victory, in Singapore.
It was an easy beginning of the campaign, winning all six of their games in Group B against Aliaga Petkimspor, Filou Oostende, and King Szczecin. They scored 97.3 points per game and had by far the highest points differential among all groups, at +152.
With the Round of 16 up next, it looked like they could really perform a 12-0 run heading to the Quarter-Finals. However, Galatasaray tripped up the defending champions.
That defeat, which put an end to their 15-month unbeaten streak in the competition, could have left some scars, but Ibon Navarro's team quickly bounced back, getting their revenge at home over the Turkish side and stopping Rytas Vilnius from reaching the next phase.
Almost unbeatable, but probably easier to trigger right now: that's how the green-and-purple dominant Spanish side are facing the upcoming best-of-three-game series in April.
As anticipated, they will have to go through one of the surprises of the season: Pallacanestro Reggiana, also known as the first Italian team to qualify for the Basketball Champions League Quarter-Finals since Segafredo Virtus Bologna back in 2019.
Side note: the black-and-whites won it all that season.
But how have Reggiana managed to pull it over, performing a run for the ages that will always be remembered by the passionate red-and-white fans?
Returning to the BCL after one year of absence, Dimitris Priftis' team laid the foundations of their success on the support of the home crowd, having won crucial games at home such as the season opener against Rytas, the second leg of the Play-Ins against Telekom Baskets Bonn, or the latest clash with Aliaga Petkimspor.
Facing the Group of Death in 2022-23 with AEK, Bonn, and Pinar Karsiyaka, this season they learned from the previous experience, qualifying as the second-best team in the Regular Season and in the Round of 16.
Were they here before?
Reggiana might have participated in do-or-die games before, playing finals in the Italian Cup, LBA Playoffs, EuroChallenge, or FIBA Europe Cup - losing in 2021-22 to Bahcesehir and Jamar Smith, of all people.
But this will be their first-ever participation in the Basketball Champions League Quarter-Finals, starting the series from Malaga's Palacio de Deportes Jose Maria Martin Carpena, on April 9 at 20:00 CET.
Unicaja, as the following slider with ten images proves, have always clinched a spot for this stage of the competition since their move to the BCL in 2021-22.
The first one left a bitter taste in Ibon Navarro's players' mouths, heavily losing Game 1 on the road and suffering a tight defeat in Game 2, back in Malaga.
Their opponents? BAXI Manresa, with the MVP of the Season Chima Moneke, Sylvain Francisco, Joe Thomasson, and more.
That was a completely different Unicaja than the one we've been used to seeing competing in the past three and a half years, and things changed in 2023.
Then, Kendrick Perry and teammates went over UCAM Murcia before the heartbreaking Final Four at home. Finally, they reached both goals in 2024, first beating Promitheas Patras in thw Quarter-Finals and then lifting the trophy.
Key matchup
During the latest game played in the domestic league against Virtus, Cassius Winston suffered an ankle injury, forced to limp to the bench when his team needed him the most.
Without the #5, things will get even more difficult for Reggiana, as the experienced point guard has been growing game by game in the competition until averaging 15.1 points and 5.8 assists per game.
He perfectly controls the tempo and has scored more than 20 points in five consecutive games this BCL season.
Moreover, he has already faced Unicaja with Tofas Bursa in the 2023-24 BCL Round of 16. In the home defeat in Türkiye, he had 19 points (6-of-6 from two) and 5 assists against Kendrick Perry and teammates.
If thinking about playmaking and Reggiana leads you to Cassius Winston, playmaking and Unicaja can't lead you anywhere but to the Certified in Person, last season's BCL Final Four MVP.
Kendrick Perry has now reached the best orderliness version of his three-year (thus far) beloved experience with Unicaja, averaging a team-high 14.2 in efficiency rating.
He shoots the ball extremely well (61.0% from two, 43.3% in three-pointers, and 91.9% at the line) and distributes 5.2 assists per game.
This series will also feature a shooting machine like Tyson Carter, the experience provided by Kenneth Faried, and a lot more. Talking about The Manimal, have you checked our latest BCL Diaries with him?
Stats Don't Lie
It's the clash of different scoring philosophies: Unicaja have proved they prefer to crush the opponents, sharing the ball and scoring as much as possible. Reggiana like to slow the tempo, controlling fortuity.
Realizing the reigning champions are the team capable of scoring the most (94.5 PPG) and sharing the most assists (23.3 APG) isn't surprising at all. Among the teams that have played in the Round of 16, Reggiana are ahead in points per game (79.4) only to Promitheas (79.1).
Unicaja are also the best in two-point (60.68%) and three-point (42.57%) percentages in the BCL. It will come down to the best defensive plan by Dimitris Priftis and his staff to contain such offensive power.
Previous meetings
Reggiana's first participation in the Basketball Champions League ended in the Regular Season; therefore, in 2022-23, they couldn't meet up with Unicaja.
This season, unlike what will happen in the Quarter-Finals between ERA Nymburk and Galatasaray, they weren't drawn into the same group in the Regular Season.
To find out about previous meetings between the two, we need to immerse ourselves in the chronicles of the late XX century.
In the FIBA Korac Cup 1998-99, Zucchetti Pallacanestro Reggiana swept CB Unicaja Malaga, while in the same competition the following season, the Spaniards got their revenge in the Round of 32.
They eventually went on to be the runners-up, losing only to Limoges CSP in the first FIBA Korac Cup Final of the new century.
Could this be history writing itself again, or will we witness the icing on the cake of an underdog adventure by Reggiana?