Barça Lassa 94-90 Baskonia: Copa del Rey semi-finalists

Barça Lassa are through to the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey after defeating Baskonia 94-90 in a Friday night game that went right down to the wire. Heurtel (20), Tomic (18) and Oriola (14) led the way and the Catalans will now meet host club Gran Canària (Saturday 9.30pm CET) to decide who will be going all the way into Sunday’s final.

The Basques stormed off to a 4-10 lead but Barça hit back with seven uncontested points and ended the first period six points up on 28-22.

Baskonia bounced straight back into it, but a slam-dunk from Oriola, a magnificent three from Hanga and a coast-to-coast from Oriola showed that Barça meant business in the cup this year. Almost back-to-back 3-pointers from Ribas, Navarro and Sanders followed – this was some of the best hoops we have seen from the team all season.

The third period brought more of the same. Barça owned the rebounds and took their lead into double figures. Baskonia clawed their way back into things, but at 74-67 things were looking very sweet indeed going into the last ten minutes.

However, there was still work to be done, and the alarm bells started ringing when Baskonia somehow managed to pull back level on 82-82.

The last two minutes were as intense as knockout basketball can be, but Heurtel handled the pressure and a fabulous steal sent Barça four ahead.

That was the play that settled the game. And the play that meant we could breathe again. For a worrying moment it had looked like all that hard work was going to be in vain, but no – we’re through to the semis. Bring on Saturday night!