Valencia Basket's slow start against Umana Reyer Venice on Wednesday included very cold outside shooting on its home rims at La Fonteta. But at game's end, key three-pointers pushed the hosts over the top to an 86-80 victory.
Valencia's shooters found rhythm just in time
Article
2 Mins read
Six Valencia players tried a total of 8 three-pointers in the first quarter, but only Xavi Lopez-Arostegui found the bottom of the net as Reyer staked an 11-22 lead that the hosts had to fight to recover all night.
Klemen Prepelic found his rhythm with 3 triples in the second quarter, helping trim the difference to 30-33, but he would not hit from downtown after that while Reyer reclaimed a double-digit lead, 43-53, in the third quarter. Valencia was still stuck on 5 triples made with 14 minutes left to play before Martin Hermannsson hit his first in 4 tries, which proved to be the icebreaker, as he didn’t miss again.
Lopez-Arostegui followed suit and Mike Tobey copied them on the first shot of the fourth quarter for Valencia's first lead all game, 67-64. When Reyer went up again by 70-75 with 6 minutes left, young Guillem Ferrando was left open on the arc and made the visitors pay. Hermannsson did the same twice more in the last 3 minutes, with his third triple of the night coming with 1:27 left and giving Valencia an 81-80 lead that stood up until the finish.
In the end, six Valencia players shared in 11-of-35 shooting from the arc, which at 31.4% wasn't stellar accuracy, but came with the right timing to get a tough job done.