Kataja Basket defeated BC Nokia. Thus, the Korisliiga final pair will only be decided in the seventh matches.
20:44•Updated 20:52
In the Men’s Basketball League, you get a historical treat, when the final pairs are decided only in the seventh semi-final matches. The matter was confirmed when Kataja Basket from Joensuu beat BC Nokia 104–90. Kataja narrowed the wins in the semifinal series to 3–3.
On Thursday, Kauhajoki Karhu Basket stretched the second semifinal series against the Helsinki Seagulls to the same numbers.
Korisliiga has played best-of-seven match series in the semifinals and finals since the 2015–2016 season. Since then, it has never been seen before that both semifinal series stretched to the seventh game.
Before this year, seven matches have been needed in three semi-final series. The last time this happened was in the spring of 2019, when Kouvola’s Kouvoi knocked down Salon Vilppa.
Before the reform, in the spring of 2015, both the semifinal series and the finals stretched to the then maximum number of five matches.
Kataja’s top scorer was the captain Amanze Egekeze with 27 points. In the previous semi-final, they scored 47 points Richard Pack support with his 19 points. BC Nokia’s best was Both Gach scoring 30 points and grabbing 13 rebounds.
Gach and Pack clashed in the last seconds, when Pack went to score a basket in the last seconds, even though Kataja’s victory was already decided. The two pushed each other. Technical errors were whistled for both of them.
Kataja sank no less than 19 three-point shots in the match and broke the Korisliiga playoff record. It has been in Kataja’s possession since three years ago, when Kataja made 21 three-point shots against Tampere Pyrintö.
Kataja and BC Nokia will decide the fate of the final place at Nokia on Sunday. Helsinki Seagulls and Kauhajoen Karhu Basket will clash in Helsinki on Saturday.
Kataja Basket has won two games in the semi-final series so that BC Nokia has had a place to grab the first final place in its club history.
– It was a hard and physical struggle. In this series, it has been decided who got the physical gear on and the other got the bigger guns off, Katajan Tuomas Hirvonen said after the match.