Coach Pedro Martinez's team dominated the EuroLeague's reigning champions
Valencia used rhythm and energy to rout Fenerbahce
Game Report
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 7 of 38
Regular Season
Valencia BasketVBC
9479
Fenerbahce Beko IstanbulFBB
Overview
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It's almost Halloween, and Valencia Basket treated its fans with a huge home win over Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, 92-79.
The final score doesn't do justice to how dominant Valencia was in this game, in which it led 27-13 at the end of the first quarter and extended its margin to 47-23. The hosts maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the play and only allowed Fenerbahce to get closer once the outcome was clear, when Tarik Biberovic scored his team's first 16 points of the fourth quarter.
What allowed Valencia to play with such flair and effectiveness? It looks simple, but it isn't. The team's strategy is that the first open shot is a good one, no matter if it is at the start of the 24-second possession, in the middle of it or to beat the shot clock. It is important to have fresh players on the court to put pressure on the ball and grab offensive rebounds. The more possessions, the better the chance to score. Behind all of that, however, lies a great defensive job that allows the team to run so much.
"We played three fantastic quarters with great rhythm, good defense, with intensity. The last quarter was a little bit worse because some players were tired and our rotations were different because we only had four inside [frontcourt] players today, and we had problems with the fouls," coach Pedro Martinez said. "But I am happy because we beat a very good team."
"We never had a chance. We never started the game and never understood, and it's better not to talk even about tactics," Fenerbahce head coach Sarunas Jasikevicius said. "They were one step faster, jumping higher, getting to the loose ball.... everything. There is nothing more to say. At halftime, Valencia had 51 points with just 8 assists, everything were one-on-one situations. It is very difficult to make your tactics work if they find advantages in one-on-one situations. They won all the 50-50 battles in the first half."
Valencia outrebounded Fenerbahce 42-35 and had more assists (17) than turnovers (13). The home team finished the game with 16 offensive rebounds from seven different players. Fenerbahce had more turnovers (15) than assists (14), too. There were intangibles like intensity, hustle and not giving up and Brancou Badio was the perfect example of that, scoring 7 consecutive points in the second quarter to put Valencia in charge for good, and getting a huge block on Mikael Jantunen in the third quarter that he was happy to discuss after the game.
"Hopefully, I will have the picture of that block! We just came out ready and hopefully we are going to play like this every night," Badio said. "I think we can play this way in any game. We have to be calm, bring our game, bring energy and just keep playing our way."
Being unpredictable on offense is also great for Valencia this season. Jean Montero just played his first EuroLeague home game at Roig Arena and registered 12 points and 5 assists in 19 minutes. He is just getting started and should be the team's main scoring reference in the future. Valencia has plenty of other options. Kameron Taylor finished the game with 17 points after averaging 7.0 in the previous six showdowns. Darius Thompson has scored in double digits in all seven games until now. Last season, he only reached double digits in scoring in 17 out of 39 EuroLeague games with Anadolu Efes Istanbul. With the right system and the right environment, good players get even better.
"The game was good, we played together. We hope to keep improving from here. Hopefully, the ceiling is not close," Taylor said after the game. "They are a great team. We knew we had to come out with energy, and that's what we did, we got the win."
Taylor is surely right: the ceiling seems to be far away. Valencia still has more power in the paint to come with defensive specialists Yankuba Sima and Braxton Key, and it is just the start of the season. It is still too early to know definitively how playing at Roig Arena will impact the team's performance, too. So far, everything looks good for Valencia, which hosts Dubai Basketball on Thursday.
