Pedro Martinez's side surpassed the 100-point mark for the third straight game, with all 12 players scoring
Balance, pace and threes allowed Valencia to rise past Reyer
Valencia Basket earned a convincing 105-83 win over the visiting Umana Reyer Venice on Thursday night, which allowed the Spanish side to stay undefeated – together with Cosea JL Bourg-en-Bresse – atop the Group B standings.
This time, the Spaniards had to deal with the absence of Stefan Jovic, who was dealing with the unfortunate death of his father. Chris Jones, meanwhile, remains out, so head coach Pedro Martinez was left with the less experienced duo of Jean Montero and Goran Filipovic at the point.
It didn’t affect the four-time BKT EuroCup champion, though, as it only trailed once on the night (0-2) and enjoyed double-digit advantages for the last 27 minutes of the game, even reaching a 31-point difference in the fourth period. A 16-2 run early in the second allowed Valencia to escape 40-24 and from then on, the gap did nothing but grow until the end of the contest.
Such a peaceful trip to victory was based on three pillars: balance, pace and three-pointers.
The first one was achieved by a solid scoring night by all of Valencia’s players, as Coach Martinez used 12 in the game and all of them scored. Even Sergio de Larrea, who had just four minutes worth of experience in the competition heading into Round 4, netted 7 points in the first four minutes of the game to start the party before later finishing with 11 after shooting a perfect 5 for 5 from the field.
Pace was another key to Valencia’s victory, as the home team tried to exploit Reyer’s absences by playing high-tempo basketball and taking advantage of its opponent’s mistakes. As such, Valencia got 21 points off Reyer’s turnovers and 18 off fast-break points.
And finally, Valencia continued to shine from beyond the arc, as it did in the last game when it scored 20 to set a new club record and tie the competition’s best mark. This time, Valencia made just 11 out of 33 attempts (33.3%), but it was way more than what Reyer achieved from behind the arc (6 of 23, 26.1%).