After the Basketball Champions League season 22/23 awards ceremony, Alberto Diaz and Dario Brizuela -each awarded for Best Defender and in the Best Quintet- spoke hours after Unicaja’s loss against Telekom Baskets Bonn in the semifinal of the Final Four. “A tough and painful defeat” as they themselves assured this Saturday after losing to a Martín Carpena who missed the opportunity to see his team win a trophy in Malaga for the first time.
The captain was clear and forceful: “It is a hard and painful defeat. Now all that remains is to get up and continue“. What began as a European dream, since we must not forget that it was the club’s great hope of winning a title, ended in a nightmare when the city saw how that three-pointer from Kendrick Perry did not end up entering the net of the basket. Brizuela himself declared that he was “a bit sad about yesterday” while collecting his individual award. “I would rather win the title than this.”
However, there is still a long way to go and this season. The man from Malaga recognized it: “There are still important objectives and we have to go after them”, to which the Basque added: “The season goes on. The play off is coming soon. We have to be prepared and confident“. Unicaja is played in the next two days of the Endesa League to take fourth place from Lenovo Tenerife to have the home court factor in favor in those quarterfinals, also against the canaries as the fight for third place in the BCL.
What happened against the German team? What could be the keys? “I think managing the pressure, the desire could us. We do not play with that mettle and tranquility. Apart from tactical things, you can learn from these little things”, the point guard assumed facing the end of the season. Did playing at Carpena weigh on you? “It may be that playing at home added pressure. We thank the public because he was with us to death, 100%. We wanted to give it to them, the pressure to return all that they give us weighed on us. This is so“, he deepened.
Meanwhile, the guard opted to look for the important points to face the final stretch of the season with enthusiasm: “Yesterday we did not have the best of days in terms of success and that weighed us down a bit in the game. We have to stick with what good: we knew how to compete, we clung to the game, we were faithful to our identity as a team. I am sure that we will have more opportunities in the future“.
kendrick perry
The Montenegrin point guard, who had a triple finish to win the game, was one of the first to write on social networks about the match against Bonn: “What they saw last night was not that I was upset because I missed the shot. I trust 100% myself to take and make those shots. Rather, it was the feeling that I could have given more to my team in the whole game and that’s why I was excited.“.
“That being said, yesterday is over. Today is a new beginning to do something great. Day by day. Step by step. We keep advancing and improving. Let’s give these fans something to celebrate tomorrow and keep going. Come on! Always Unicaja“, he concluded.