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Head-to-head: Bouteille, Turk Telekom vs. Della Valle, Brescia

Head-to-head: Bouteille, Turk Telekom vs. Della Valle, Brescia

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13 April 20233 Mins read

Head-to-head: Bouteille, Turk Telekom vs. Della Valle, Brescia

The final game of the 2022-23 7DAYS EuroCup Eighthfinals will pit two veteran scorers against one another when Axel Bouteille and Turk Telekom Ankara host Germani Brescia and Amedeo Della Valle. Turk Telekom (13-5) has earned home-court advantage as the second-placed team in Group B while Brescia (8-10) was seventh in Group A.

This contest is set to be Bouteille's 70th appearance in the EuroCup, and the first time he will play an elimination game. On the other hand, of Della Valle's 73 appearances in the competition, seven have come in the EuroCup Playoffs.

Bouteille arrives to his EuroCup postseason premier behind a career-best season. He ranks fifth in scoring with 17.7 points per game and fifth with 2.7 three-pointers per game. He's piling up the points based on 59.2% two-point and 43.2% three-point shooting. Bouteille also averages 4.6 rebounds and 1.7 assists.

Della Valle, who is posting 14.6 points per game, has not shot the ball as well as Bouteille. The Brescia guard has been dishing 4.6 assists per game and averaging 1.5 rebounds for an average PIR of 17.0, just behind Bouteille's 17.7.

The two players are each in their fifth EuroCup season and have played against each other twice before, with both of those meeting having taken place in January 2018 when Bouteille was with Limoges CSP and Della Valle with Grissin Bon Reggio Emilia.

Reggio Emilia went on to the semifinals in that 2017-18 season and Della Valle earned All-EuroCup First Team honors. In their head-to-head games, Della Valle and Bouteille split Top 16 home wins, but Della Valle had a lot more prominent role in those two games.

That included his career-best PIR of 38 in Reggio Emilia's 87-54 victory, in which he led the way with 22 points on 4-for-5 three-point shooting, along with a career-high 9 rebounds and also 4 assists and 3 steals. Bouteille finished with 9 points and 2 rebounds in 26 minutes of that loss.

Later that month, in Limoges, Bouteille contributed 4 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists in an 80-71 home victory while Della Valle had 18 points in 32 minutes for Reggio Emilia.

Bouteille is a much bigger protagonist this season and will be inspired to get a home win that this time will be worth a place in the EuroCup Quarterfinals. Brescia, on the other hand, will need Della Valle to be at his best and perhaps seeing Bouteille on the other end will inspire him to another major performance.

Either way, the two veterans will have plenty to say in the last eighthfinals showdown whose winner is slotted to play ratiopharm Ulm in the quarterfinals next week.