Barça have won in epic fashion at Gran Canaria to book a place in the league semi-finals. A Cory Higgins buzzer-beater nicked it right at the end, while Nikola Mirotic once again led the scoring with 21, adding nine rebounds to his card as well.
The home side dominated the early paint, with Diop in fine form, but Dante Exum and Nick Calathes got organised quick to prevent the islanders for moving too far ahead.
Barça gradually got into their rhythm and finally edged into the lead but we hadn’t seen the last of Gran Canaria who were back to +5 by the interval.
They doubled that lead after the restart (54-44), but driven by Pierre Oriola and by a better 3-point conversion rate, they were soon back level.
But in an extraordinary game, the yellow shirts once again found the impetus to go into a two-figure lead. And once again, Barça responded, and with two minutes to go, the sides were all-square yet again.
The Gran Canària Arena was electric. The lead swung one way and then the next, but when Ennis scored with less than five seconds to play, it looked like we were headed for overtime.
But no. Higgins scored in the vest last split second, and Barça will go on to face either Ara, Joventut of Badalona or Lenovo Tenerife in the semi-finals.
Game one will be next Friday at 9.00pm CEST in the Palau Blaugrana.
MATCH STATS
Gran Canària: Albicy (3), Slaughter (4), Brussino (5), Shuma (7), Diop (15), Balcerowski (4), Salvó (3), López (-), Pustovyi (8), Ennis (26), Stevic (4), Chery (7).
Barça: Calathes (5), Exum (4), Laprovittola (17), Mirotic (21), Smits (6), Brandon Davies (10), Sergi Martínez (2), Oriola (4), Higgins (12), Kuric (-), Jokubaitis (7), Nnanji (-).
Periods: 18-15 / 28-26 // 20-22 / 20-25
