By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Cory Higgins was 3-12 for more than 39 minutes but his clutch gene was, again, present.
With 25 seconds remaining and the score between Barcelona and Bayern Munich tied at 70, Higgins drove to the basket and hit a difficult jumper that gave the Blaugrana a 72 – 70 win over their opponents.
Ognjen Jaramaz, who had scored five straight points to make it 70 – 70, took it on him to make the triple to win the match after Higgins’ bucket. Nikola Kalinic‘s defense forced a tough shot that went off target and Barcelona survived to improve to 15-8.
Despite the loss, Bayern put up quite an impressive fight, especially considering its several absences (head coach Andreas Trinchieri due to a personal problem, along with Othello Hunter, Andreas Obst, Elias Harris and Vladimir Lucic). The Bavarian side was trailing 63 – 51 with six minutes remaining but scored nine unanswered points and proceeded to tie the score in the last minute before Higgins’ game-winner.
Nikola Mirotic was Barca’s leading scorer with 12 points, including a three for the 70 – 65. Jan Vesely delivered 10 points plus nine rebounds and Sertac Sanli scored 10.
“We were up in the last quarter, we should have finished the game much better, not to give them the chance to win the game or go to overtime,” Vesely said.
Nick Weiler-Babb dropped 15 points for Bayern. Jaramaz finished with 12 and Augustine Rubit posted 10 points plus five rebounds. Their team is now 9 – 14.
“Exactly what we expected before the game,” Barcelona coach Sarunas Jasikevicius said. “It’s always like this with Bayern, you can never take them out of the game. They insist and they are patient, they decide their possessions in the last 4 or 5 seconds. Mentally it’s very tough if they start hitting those shots in the last 5 seconds, especially the difficult ones. We prevailed and that’s the most important thing.”