An all-Spanish League affair will see Baskonia (12-10) attempt to protect its position in the top eight against direct rival Valencia (11-11).
Ivanovic, Baskonia: "Valencia is one of the best teams"



Baskonia is on a two-game winning streak, most recently taking a thrilling road win at Zvezda behind 32 points from Markus Howard. Baskonia’s stars shined to grab a big 84-98 victory at Valencia in December with Codi Miller-McIntyre recording a double-double of 10 points and 11 assists, Chima Moneke powering 19 points and Howard blasting 24 with 6 three-pointers. Chris Jones had 15 points and 6 assists as Valencia overcame Milan last week, also helped by Semi Ojeleye with 14 points and 7 boards, and they will need another big night to take a key road win on Friday.
Dusko Ivanovic, Baskonia head coach
"In my opinion, Valencia is one of the best teams in the Spanish League and in the EuroLeague. It has proven it all season long and above all, it has a new player, Pangos, who can give his team a variety of options. They have Chris Jones, Pangos, Jovic and Harper, all players at the '1' and '2' spots who can score and create, which is very important. It is a very tough team that plays really good defense. It will be a very difficult game. From now on, each game is very important and can be decisive. We have to take one game at a time and each game will be very tough. We have to be ready to play with patience for 40 minutes and wait for our moment to win the game. We have to play well if we want to beat Valencia, especially on defense. They have a lot of talent on offense, very good shooters and Davies, who can shoot from outside or play in the low post. They have a very deep team so first and foremost, we have to play very good defense and that our new signing doesn't change things for us. [Jordan Theodore] is an experienced player and I hope he can help us. In this moment, it is important that he adjustes to the team fast because I don't want the team to adjust to him, we cannot allow that. He must adjust to the team, and that will be a tough task, especially in the beginning, until he gets some rhythm with us.

























































































