As Regal Barça had already won the group, there was nothing at stake in this match, the 21st consecutive win this season. Pascual’s side had no trouble tonight winning 76-58 in a game that reflected the meaninglessness of the match. But it did mean some of the less used players like Jaka Lakovic got their chance.

Ingles gets started

The peculiar starting five of Ricky, Lakovic, Anderson, Morris and Perovic showed that this was a game for experimentation, and with the Slovenes also lacking ambition, it was soon 8-4.

The main talking point of the opening period was not a good one. Anderson had to leave the court with evident pain in his back and Grimau took his place as a three from veteran Jagodnik brought the visitors back level (19-19). Then Joe Ingles responded with one of his own and the period ended 21-19.

More intensity, bigger lead

Boniface Ndong and Victor Sada came on for the next period, and although Olimpija took the early lead (21-23), another triple from Jaka Lakovic made it 24-23 and FCB finally upped the ante.

With seven minutes to go before the interval, 50% of Barça’s scoring had come from behind the 6.75 line and they were soon seven-up (32-25). The Catalans wrongly seemed to think that meant they could relax a little, and a 3-6 streak brought the gap down to four.

Anderson recovered

Pascual started the third with Sada, Lakovic, Anderson, Lorbek and Perovic, which meant plenty of height and a game-breaking 8-0 to go +12 (43-31), including a spectacular score for Alan Anderson, who had clearly recovered from his pain.

Olimpija had not scored for four minutes but then issued a reminder that they were still there by hitting 0-6 (43-37) and driving Pascual to call a timeout that seemed to do the trick. With the players needing more motivation and the Slovenians playing catch-up, he made four changes:
Morris, Ingles, Perovic and Anderson were all withdrawn and a buzzer-beater from Jaka Lakovic put FCB back into clear command (51-44).

Great last period

Jagodnik was supplying threes to the Slovenians, and managed to get the deficit back down to ten (62-52) but Barça, and especially Vázquez and N’Dong on the paint, provided some spectacular plays to delight the crowd and the home side gathered a decisive advantage (69-57) with two minutes to play. More threes from Morris (72-58) put them +14 and the game ended in a comfortable 76-58 win.