Korac 1981 Final: The Joventut opens its continental palmares

In 1981 the Korac final was played in Barcelona, where Joventut touched the continental trophy after beating Venezia in an exciting final that needed extra time to decide the champion (105-104)

Semi-finals
Joventut – Red Star
Venice – Dynamo MBK

Thursday, March 19, 1981, St. Joseph’s Day, will be recorded as one of the most important feats in the history of Joventut. La Penya achieved the unthinkable, the feat of the year: they won their first European final when they had everything against them, when they had to rely on their youngest players and their own spirit of self-improvement to get through a difficult situation. With just a minute and a half to go, the Black and Greens were down by seven points and nobody was betting on Manel Comas’ charges any more. At that point, Gonzalo Sagi-Vela decided to take the reins of the team and encouraged his team-mates to make one last desperate, almost kamikaze, effort. It could be said that they were favoured by luck, the improper mistakes of an experienced team like Carrera, or even by refereeing permissiveness in the face of the desperate final push into the field, but few teams are as capable as Penya of continuing to fight on without giving up in a situation that seems impossible to overcome.

Joventut 105
*Skinner – 19p, 4r
*Sagi-Vela – 27p, 2a
*Margall – 23p, 4r
*Santillana – 6p, 4r
*Galvin – 16p, 6r, 6t
Villacampa – 0p
Delgado – 10p, 2br
González – 2p, 1br
Solé – 2p, 1r

Venice 104
*Gracis – 0p, 4br
*Grattoni – 5p, 1a
*Dalipagic – 25p, 6r
*Della Fiori – 20p, 5r
*Haywood – 30p, 9r
Carraro – 12p, 2br
Gorghetto – 0p
Serafini – 12p, 2t