体坛英语新闻：Barca beat Valencia 76-72 to retain Spanish basketball lead

MADRID, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Regal Barcelona remain on top of the Endesa ACB Basketball League in Spain following the 27th round of games in the Spanish competition.

Barca recovered from their EuroLeague quarterfinal matches during the week to inflict a 76-72 defeat on Valencia, who almost took advantage of the Catalans' tiredness to get back into the game in the third quarter of the match.

Real Madrid maintained the pace in second place, winning a low scoring game 64-51 at home to Unicaja Malaga. Mirza Bergic netted 21 points for the whites.

Caja Laboral suffered a 72-71 defeat away to cash-strapped Lucentum Alicante, who won the game in the last second thanks to a three-point throw from Pedro Llompert. The Alicante had been kept in contention by 22 points scored by Kayolan Ivanov.

Lagun Aro move into fourth with an impressive 79-74 victory against Assignia Manresa. 24 points from Sergi Vidal helped the side from San Sebastian follow on from last week's excellent win against Real Madrid.

Gescrap Bizkaya Bilbao consolidated their playoff hopes with a 78-72 win at home to Gran Canaria. Bizkaya had also been in EuroLeague action during the week and ran out of gas in the last 10 minutes, but by then the Basques had already opened up a 15 point advantage which was enough to see them home.

There was also drama at the bottom of the table as UCAM Murcia inflicted a shock defeat on playoff chasing CAI Zaragoza. Murcia defeated Zargoza 76-62 to open a two-game gap over second from bottom Adecco Estudiantes, who crashed at home 77-64 against Banca Civica.

Blosens Monbus also took another step towards safety thanks to a 82-63 win away to Mad-Croc Fuenlabrada. Both sides are now locked together with 10 wins each.

Finally Blancos Rueda Valladolid slipped to their 21st defeat of the season, losing 83-73 to FIATC Joventut.