Joventut eliminates London with 89-78 triumph

Joventut Badalona avoided an upset in the 7DAYS EuroCup Eighthfinals as it defeated the London Lions 89-78 at Palau Olimpic de Badalona on Wednesday night. The Spanish team will next take on Hapoel Vegan Friendly Tel Aviv in the quarterfinals, following the Israeli side's victory against Umana Reyer Venice.
Ante Tomic led the way for Joventut with 16 points on a night when five other players for the hosts reached double figures. Henry Ellenson scored 14 points, Kyle Guy and Andres Feliz both had 13, Joel Parra chipped in with 12 and Guillem Vives finished with 10. For London, Tomislav Zubcic paced the visitors with a game-high 19 points. Aaron Best also had 18 and Jordan Taylor 14, while Sam Dekker scored 8 but was clearly still affected by the ankle injury he suffered in Round 17.
Joventut had a perfect start to the game, hitting 3 three-pointers – 2 from Vives and 1 from Parra – on its first three trips down the floor to open an early 9-0 lead. London's first points came at the 7:26 mark thanks to a couple of made free throws by Zubcic, 9-2, but the hosts soon opened a double-digit lead thanks to another triple, this time by Ellenson, 12-2. The scoring dried up a little for Joventut thereafter, but a made shot by Feliz from behind the arc – Joventut's fifth of the quarter – with 4:00 left ensured that the hosts remained in complete control, 15-6. After the first 10 minutes, Joventut had a 7-point lead, 19-12.
Parra opened the second quarter with a corner three, 22-12, which extended the lead to double digits again, but a London fightback saw it pull to within 4 points when Mo Soluade hit a stepback shot from just inside the arc, 24-20. Yet, Joventut managed to hold its nerve, with Guy doing damage around the rim and from mid-range, which allowed the hosts to make it a double-digit game once again, 30-20. Then, with 2:29 remaining before halftime, Joventut opened a 16-point gap, 39-23, as the Spanish side kept finding ways to make London pay from all areas of the floor. However, a late 0-8 run by London, which featured 5 straight points by Taylor, trimmed the deficit and made it 39-31, as the visitors went into the break 8 points down.
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Taylor stayed hot coming out of the halftime interview, scoring a layup to make it a 6-point ballgame, 39-33. Joventut responded again, though, scoring 5 straight points to once again go 11 points ahead, 44-33. Despite the best attempts of London, who had Best trying to single-handedly keep it in the game in the third quarter, Joventut never appeared to feel threatened. Instead, Tomic used his experience to keep going to the line and ensure that London remained at arm's length, 54-42. After Best's best efforts to keep London alive, 57-49, Vojtech Hruban and Zubcic appeared to put pressure on the hosts, 59-54. After 30 minutes, Joventut was ahead by 6, 64-58.
The fourth quarter could not have got off to a worse start for London, who didn't score inside the opening 3:47 and found itself down by 16, 74-58. Dekker had played a largely peripheral role due to an ankle injury he suffered in Round 17 against Turk Telekom Ankara, but he came to the fore the midway point of the fourth, dunking of a steal, going 2-for-2 at the line and then dunking off another steal to give London hope, 76-66. But, on his second dunk, he was clearly limping in another sign that this might not be London's night. Taylor trimmed the deficit further with a made shot from midrange, 76-68, but 5 points in a row by Joventut calmed down the nerves inside the arena, 81-68. Zubcic hit back-to-back threes on successive trips down the floor, 83-74, before Taylor cut it to 83-76, but a Parra layup and a couple of made free throws by Ellenson led to big roars inside the arena, 87-76. Joventut was then able to see out its 89-79 win and celebrate, having avoided a repeat of last year's eighthfinals nightmare.