Trailing by double figures at halftime, Valencia clamped down on defense in the second half to turn the game on its head and beat Virtus.
Valencia locked down on defense after halftime to defeat Virtus
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Valencia Basket had its back to the wall at halftime against Virtus Segafredo Bologna at Pabellon Fuente De San Luis on Thursday night. The hosts were trailing by 10 points, having allowed the Italian side to score 47 against the team that boasts the best defense in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague this season with just 74.0 points conceded per game after 16 rounds. Virtus outscored Valencia 11-26 in the second quarter and the absences of important players such as Victor Claver, Semi Ojeleye and Jared Harper were taking their toll on the team. Yet, at halftime, Valencia went back to its factory settings, tightened up its defense and turned the game around in the second half.
“They suffered,” Valencia head coach Alex Mumbru jokingly said after the game when asked what he told his players at halftime to give them a morale boost. But the truth is that the team that suffered was Virtus after the break. The Italian side finished the first half with just 4 errors but ended the game with a joint season-high 19 turnovers. Virtus committed 8 in the third quarter when it scored just a couple of field goals and was outscored 23-7 by Valencia. This marked Virtus’s lowest-scoring quarter in the competition this season, as the Italian side had scored in double digits in each of its quarters all season before Thursday’s duel in Valencia.
“We just take pride in our defense,” Valencia guard Chris Jones said after the game. “That’s one of our biggest strengths this year and we’re just trying to continue to execute that. We got some tough buckets down the stretch from [Brandon] Davies and some other guys, but defensively we were locked in today.”
Indeed, Davies made the difference in crunch time, netting 6 straight points to seal the victory for Valencia. Jones led all scorers with 17 points, having gone 5-for-7 from inside the arc, 1-for-3 from deep and a perfect 4-for-4 from the charity stripe. Most importantly, he managed to keep his cool and made all his 4 free throws in the last 30 seconds of the game.
“I’ve got great teammates and they make it easy for me,” Jones added. “I made some shots today, not as many as I wanted [laughs], but we got the win so I’m happy with that.”
It has to be noted that this defensive display didn’t come against just any team. Coming into Round 16, Virtus boasted the fourth-best offense in the competition with an average of 83.5 scored per game. In fact, Valencia cooled off one of the hottest teams in the EuroLeague as Virtus had recorded four wins in a row, including victories against last year’s runner-up Olympiacos Piraeus, away at an in-form Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz and at home over FC Barcelona. Virtus could find no answers to Valencia’s defense after the break, with its star Tornike Shengelia looking frustrated after committing his seventh turnover of the night late in the fourth quarter.
Virtus guard Iffe Lundberg committed three straight turnovers in the closing stages of the third quarter. Lundberg had gone a perfect 1-for-1 on two-pointers, 3-for-3 from downtown and 2-for-2 from the line, playing a key role in Virtus outscoring Valencia 11-26 in the second quarter. However, Valencia’s defense managed to get under his skin and practically took him out of the game after forcing him to the aforementioned 3 consecutive turnovers in the space of just a few seconds at the end of the third quarter.
Valencia’s players locked down one of the most prolific offenses in the EuroLeague and proved for yet another time on the court why they boast the finest defense in the competition this season.