


Valencia Basket showed in its 88-94 victory over ALBA Berlin just how important free throw shooting is. Valencia converted 22 of 27 free throws for the game (81.5%), including making all 11 free throws in the final 2:03 minutes to get the win.
The Spanish side entered the game as the second-best free-throw shooting team in the EuroLeague at 82.6%. But going into the crunch time, Alex Mumbru had to be wondering about his team’s fortitude from the charity stripe, having made just 11 of its first 16 foul shots in the game (68.8%).
But with the game tied 81-81 with 2:03 minutes left, Kyle Alexander made 2 free throws. Chris Jones followed with 2 and added a third on an ALBA technical foul, and Jonah Radebaugh buried 2 as well as Valencia was working hard defensively to get stops in the high-scoring game.
Xabi Lopez-Arostegui re-established a 4-point lead with 2 free throws with 16 seconds left and Jared Harper iced the game with his foul shots with 7.9 seconds to go.
Harper had made just 1-of-4 free throws until that point, but he made sure he didn’t let his team down.
"We got stops and we made our free throws, and that was the key to the game. We believe in each other no matter who has the ball. At the end of the game we believed in our free throws, we work every day on it in practice. And it paid off today," said Jones, who ended up making 7 of 7 free throws to lead the way.