Manresa, Tenerife, Holon sweep their playoff series to clinch BCL Final Four spots / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: FIBA Media Credit FIBA Media

The FIBA Basketball Champions League Final Four lineup is almost done, since Baxi Manresa, Lenovo Tenerife and Hapoel Holon have earned themselves the tickets for the event to be held in Bilbao from May 6 to 8.

Player of the Game EFF 21 Chima Moneke Points 24 Accuracy 9-13 Rebounds 5 Assists 0

The team from the Canary Islands beat Tofas Bursa 74-73 and got through on the fast track, as did Holon, who also defeated SIG Strasbourg by a tight 81-80.

The duel between Strasbourg and Hapoel Holon was the first to be played and set the tone. With Strasbourg up 77-76, Joe Ragland knocked down a three-point shot to put Holon up 79-77 with 50 seconds. Matt Mitchell then converted an and-one to put Strasbourg back on top 80-79 with 22 seconds left. Then, on the next possession, none other than Ragland hit a step-back jumper to give Holon an 81-80 lead with 11 seconds left.

On the final possession of the game, Strasbourg got a good look from Mitchell, but the mid-range shot came up short, giving Holon the series sweep.

The French side dominated in the first half but Holon made a partial score of 12-27 in the third quarter. Matt Mitchell's 24 points guided the Strasbourg side, but the trio of Ragland, Tyrus McGee and Chris Johnson managed to turn the final score around and the series to a 2-0 decision.

Tyrus McGee led Holon with 21 points on 6/12 shooting from the field. On the defensive side, Holon came up clutch with 7 blocks, as Michale Kyser blocked 6 shots, the most in a BCL game this season.

With Holon now advancing to the Final Four, they are the first Israeli team to reach this phase of the competition. They will face Lenovo Tenerife, who made it to the semis for the third time in six Basketball Champions League seasons.

The 2017 champs and 2019 runners up defeated Tofas Bursa 2-0 in the playoff series by getting a couple of one-point wins in the best-of-three matchup. Txus Vidorreta's men won Game 1 78-77, and backed it up with a similar road 74-73 win thanks to a Marcelinho Huertas two-pointer with 1.2 seconds left on the game clock.

Hapoel Holon / Schedule

Hapoel Holon SIG Strasbourg93-75 SIG Strasbourg Hapoel Holon80-81

With his game winning shot, Marcelinho collected 15 points and 7 assists, both team-highs for Txus Vidorreta's team. Even with Kyle Wiltjer sitting out, Tenerife still had five men in double figures.

Jeremy Simmons had 17 points, Yigit Arslan 14, but all the other Tofas weapons were kept under control by the Spanish defense. Tomislav Zubcic, Elgin Cook, Pako Cruz and Tyler Ennis were kept in single digit scoring, not enough to reach Game 3 in San Cristobal de La Laguna.

Joe Thomasson hit the biggest shot of the season to send BAXI Manresa to their first-ever Final Four at the expense of struggling Unicaja Malaga.

Manresa won the game 91-89, completing the sweep in the Quarter-Finals, ending Unicaja's season and now waitng for the outcome of the MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg- U-BT Cluj Napoca matchup.

Manresa dominated the all-Spanish duel from the second quarter on, reaching half-time at 50-42, but the Andalusian comeback was epic, going from 63-69 towards the end of the third fourth to a disastrous 77-69 for Pedro Martínez's men, who had the last laugh.

An almost accidental three-pointer scored by Dani Perez woke up the Manresans, who found triples by Luke Maye and Sylvain Francisco to tie the contest at 89, in the last minute. After Martinez's time-out, John Thomasson scored the go-through basket over Tim Abromaitis with a second to go and to Ibon Navarro's disappointment.

At 89-91, Bouteille attempted a desperate triple, which, obviously, missed the target.

Thomasson had 14 points, Francisco 17, but it was all about Chima Moneke for Manresa. The big guy had 17 points in 12 minutes of work in the first half, finished with 24 on 9/13 shooting with 5 rebounds and 3 steals also to his name.

Jonathan Barreiro scored 21 points for Unicaja, but could not help his teammate Dejan Kravic get back to the Final Four. With Unicaja being eliminated, Kravic's run of three straight BCL titles - two with Hereda San Pablo Burgos, one with Segafredo Virtus Bologna - came to an end.

Meanwhile, BAXI Manresa are enjoying their historic season. They are the fifth different Spanish team to reach the BCL Final Four, after Lenovo Tenerife, UCAM Murcia, Casademont Zaragoza and Hereda San Pablo Burgos.

All that remains to be settled is the the fourth Final Four spot, claimed by Ludwigsburg and Cluj, with an advantage for the Carpathian team, which won last week by 76-73. The Germans missed out on a great opportunity to break the Romanian's home court advantage but have a shot at evening the series.

Like what we are doing? You can express your gratitude here.