FC Barcelona 95-96 BAXI Manresa: OT defeat in dramatic derby

Barça have suffered overtime defeat at the Palau Blaugrana to BAXI Manresa in an extremely tight encounter on Sunday evening. Mirotic excelled with 20 points, but it wasn’t enough to avoid a home loss.

Manresa stormed off the blocks and a 7-0 streak helped them to an 8-point lead at the end of the first period.

But a quick improvement both defensively and offensively soon had the home side in front, and in an extraordinary turnaround they’d be leading by seven at the interval.

The third period was all about Manresa slowly but steadily clawing their way back into the match and restoring a slight lead going into the final ten.

Manresa then flow into a ten point lead and looked to be on course for a big away victory, but Mirotic, Hayes and Sanli all produced some fine play right at the end as Barça amazingly edged their way into lead only for the visitors to send the game into overtime with six seconds left.

The drama continued as Manresa led in OT on the basis of free throws, while Barça managed to stay in contention on the grounds of solid defence. The blaugrana had 18 seconds to win the game when it was at 95-96, but luck wasn’t on their side and their fellow Catalans were able to celebrate a memorable victory.

MATCH STATS

Barça: Laprovittola (2), Kuric (8), Hayes-Davis (17), Mirotic (20), Nnaji (10), Sanli (16),  Jokubaitis (15), Smits (2), Higgins (2) & Ubal (3).

BAXI Manresa: Pérez (2), Moneke (18), Valtonen (8), Bako (14), Thomasson (3), Francisco (25), García (7), Martínez (-), Vaulet (2), Maye (12) & Sima (5). 

Periods: 17-25 / 27-12 / 15-23 / 27-26 / 9-10