Bilbao Basket 82-80 FC Barcelona: Denied at the very end

The Barça basketball team suffered Easter Sunday defeat at Surne Bilbao Basket in tight game that was decided in the final seconds. An Abrines three, his fifth of the game, looked to have clinched the win with six seconds on the lock, but Radicevic then did the same for the home side and a 22nd win the ACB was not to be.

Tight encounter

The scoring was generally low and neither side was able to mount any meaningful lead until the final plays of the first half, when a Mirotic 3-pointer and two free throws from Laprovittola gave the Catalan the upper hand, 30-37, at the interval.

Barça would go +8 following the restart, but it was a false alarm. Bilbao only needed a few minutes to cancel out that lead and go in front themselves. Especially thanks to some majestic shooting from Alex Abrines, Barça kept threatening to break away, but Bilbao always seemed to have an answer, and instead we went into the final minute with just a point in it.

There was a bit of everything at the climax, great scores and unfortunate misses, building up the remarkable threes at each end of the court and the game eventually being won by the narrowest of margins by Bilbao.

MATCH STATS

SURNE BILBAO BASKET, 82

BARÇA, 80

Bilbao Basket: Radicevic (11), Smith (22), Sulejmanovic (13), Xavi Rabaseda (8), Tsalmpouris (1), Andersson (2), Reyes (8), Ubal (6), Kyser (11), Barandalla (-).

Barça: Laprovittola (12), Paulí (9), Kuric (9), Sanli (4), Mirotic (13), Da Silva (2), Vesely (5), Abrines (17), Nnaji (-), Higgins (2), Jokubaitis (7).

Periods: 18-22 / 13-15 (31-37) / 21-20 (52-57) / 30-23 (82-80).

Referees: Fernando Calatrava, Arnau Padrós, Carlos Merino.