Three quarters won, an 18-point lead, and yet Unicaja wasn't comfortable until the final buzzer. The first Liga Endesa victory of the season (92-84 over MoraBanc Andorra) brings the relief Txus Vidorreta's team needed. It also reveals something they'll need to fix: they struggle to maintain control of games they already have in hand.
Unicaja let it happen twice in the same night. With an 18-point lead in the second quarter, after a strong start with three-pointers from Pantzar and Noua, they allowed Andorra to go into halftime down just eight (47-39). And in the third quarter, they watched as James Akinjo, the visitors' best player with 20 points, brought his team within six. Vidorreta had to call a timeout when it didn't seem necessary.
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When the outside shot stopped falling, Unicaja found another way. Ignas Brazdeikis was the player to turn to and finished with 19 points and a rating of 27. Alongside him, Cameron Hunt and Noua attacked the rim repeatedly, and Perry, off the bench, gave the game the pace it was missing. On defense, a well-organized zone stopped a rival that had been sustained by offensive rebounding.
Andorra had plenty of arguments to compete. Artem Pustovyi was a constant problem in the paint with 19 points and 9 rebounds, and Leon Radosevic won his individual matchup with Willy Hernangómez, who ended up hampered by fouls. At 68-61 in the 29th minute, the game remained wide open. The Andorran team leaves the Carpena still without a win, though with one fewer game due to a postponement.
For Unicaja, coming off narrow losses to Real Madrid and La Laguna Tenerife and having won Wednesday in the BCL, the victory closes a week with two wins and gets them off the board in the standings.