Valencia Basket has a collection of big men that would make some Turkish Airlines EuroLeague teams be jealous. And the four-time 7DAYS EuroCup champion pushed that weight around on Wednesday against debutant Hamburg Towers for a 98-80 victory to reach the EuroCup Quarterfinals.
Valencia's size was too imposing for Hamburg
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A day after ratiopharm Ulm surprised Joventut Badalona, Valencia was not going to suffer a similar fate against another German team. Coach Joan Penarroya made sure his Valencia troops used their impressive size advantage.
Rebounding was the biggest thing that stood out in Valencia’s win as the hosts grabbed 38 boards to 23 for Hamburg, including corralling 16 offensive rebounds while Hamburg could only get 12 defensive boards.
It was more than just rebounds though as Valencia’s centers Bojan Dubljevic, Jasiel Rivero, Jaime Pradilla and Mike Tobey combined for 52 points on 20-of-25 two-point shooting (80.0%), 2 three-pointers, 20 rebounds - 11 of them on the offensive end – and 5 steals. And Victor Claver chipped in 9 points and 3 rebounds from the power forward spot.
“The key factors of the game were clear - the rebounding, especially the offensive boards for Valencia and finishing at the rim. We couldn’t stop Valencia and its points in the paint,” Hamburg coach Pedro Calles said.
Hamburg just did not have anything close depthwise to challenge that, even though Maik Kotsar was quite productive with 23 points on 10-of-11 shooting while also collecting 6 rebounds and 2 steals.