Valencia boxed out to beat Greens
Valencia Basket needed to play hard for 45 minutes to beat difficult Panathinaikos Athens 94-91 in overtime in Round 13 at La Fonteta. Focusing on defensive rebounds made the difference down the stretch.
Panathinaikos out-rebounded Valencia by 5-12 in the first quarter, pulling down 7 offensive rebounds and only allowing Valencia to get one of its own. In the opening 10 minutes, Valencia pulled down just 36.4% of all rebounds under its rim, which led to many second-chance opportunities for the visitors. The Greens led 20-26 at the end of the first quarter.
Things changed after that. In the next three quarters, Valencia out-rebounded Panathinaikos by 32-24, allowing the Greens to get just 7 more offensive boards. In that time, Valencia pulled down 23 defensive rebounds, which means it got 76.7% of all boards under its rim.
Two-point shots made the difference, too: Valencia hit 23 of 35 two-pointers (65.7%) and Panathinaikos made 22-of-48 attempts (45.8%). Bojan Dubljevic and Jasiel Rivero combined for 39 points on 12-for-14 two-point shooting (85.7% 2FG).