The Spaniards used a strong 16-2 run early in the second quarter to escape
Valencia soars over Reyer to remain unbeaten, 105-83
Game Report
3 Mins read
Valencia Basket grabbed its fourth win in as many games in the BKT EuroCup after defeating 105-83 Umana Reyer Venice at La Fontenta on Thursday evening. Despite missing Chris Jones and Stefan Jovic at point guard, the hosts managed to take control of the game early in the second quarter and never looked back. Valencia improved to 4-0 as Reyer, which was without injured players Xavier Munford, Tyler Ennis, Jordan Parks and Davide Casarin, dropped to 1-3 after losing three in a row.
Semi Ojeleye paced the winners with 16 points, Matt Costello added 14 in less than 17 minutes and Sergio de Larrea had a perfect shooting night with 11 points on 5-of-5 shooting from the field. Reyer’s Kyle Wiltjer led all scorers with career-high 34 points, while Mfiondu Kabengele posted a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Carl Wheatle finished with 12 points and 6 rebounds in the losing effort.
Despite Reyer becoming the first team to score through Wiltjer, Valencia didn’t need too long to get things going thanks to an unstoppable De Larrea, who contributed his first 7 points in the EuroCup in the first four minutes of the game. His last bucket also started a 9-0 run, capped by a triple by Josep Puerto that set a 16-7 edge for the home team. The guests didn’t step back, though, and took advantage of a solid rebounding job and free throws to make it 19-17 soon after. Even though Nate Sestina showed up from beyond the arc to extend it to 24-18 entering the last minute, back-to-back buckets by Alessandro Lever allowed Reyer to stay close, 24-22, at the end of the first period.
Valencia regrouped after the break with a strong 7-0 spark behind the first three of Goran Filipovic and a couple of productive actions by Jaime Pradilla. Better rebounding and six points from two plays by Ojeleye made it a double-digit difference, 37-24, for the first time into the game after 14 minutes. Sestina dug it deeper, 40-24, right after the timeout, closing a 16-2 run for his team so far in the quarter. Valencia kept momentum on offense with many other players joining the scoring duties, while Reyer found Wiltjer, who had 9 points in the last five minutes of the period, to avoid a premature sinking. A couple of free throws by the Canadian forward made it 52-38 at the break.
Wiltjer remained the only player able to score for the visitors early in the third period and netted 5 quick points to bring his team within 54-43, but Reyer couldn’t go further as back-to-back triples by Costello and Brancou Badio returned a safe advantage to Valencia, 62-45, in the blink of an eye. Kabengele joined Wiltjer on offense to try to help Reyer get closer, but no one else contributed and Valencia used a couple of strong plays by Nate Reuvers to build a 20-point difference, 71-51, for the first time into the game. Free throws by Pradilla and Puerto established a 77-54 advantage when the third period finished.
With the outcome in no doubt, the difference remained above the 20-point-mark for the remainder of the contest. Kabengele and Ojeleye swapped baskets for a while when the latter increased the gap to 25 points, 87-62, with almost eight minutes remaining. Costello and Xabi Lopez-Arostegui joined forces later to increase it to 90-62, and it got even worse when De Larrea dunked it to make it a game-high 31-points difference, 97-66, with four minutes to go. From then on, the only question to be answered was when and who would score to help the visitors reach the 100-point mark. It ended up being Reuvers, who made it 101-76, before a couple of free throws by Jean Montero and another score by Reuvers saw Valencia score – and finish on – 105 points for the third straight game.
