Valencia Basket vs. LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne - Game

2018-19Regular SeasonRound 1

October 02, 2018 CET: 20:45

Local time: 20:45 LA FONTETA

Valencia rallies past ASVEL in home opener

Valencia Basket overcame a double-digit deficit to defeat LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne 84-62 at Pabellon Fuente de San Luis in Group C on Tuesday. Valencia trailed 12-22 early in the second quarter but managed to bounce back and get a big win in front of its fans. Will Thomas paced the winners with 16 points off the bench. Bojan Dubljevic added 14, Louis Labeyrie had 13 and Matt Thomas 10 for Valencia. Charles Kahudi paced ASVEL with 13 points and Miro Bilan added 12 for the guests.

Valencia missed its first five shots from downtown, while Kahudi and Mantas Kalnietis each struck from beyond the arc in a 4-15 opening run that Bilan capped with a layup. Thomas and Guillen Vives brought Valencia within 12-17 after 10 minutes. Vives kept pushing Valencia early in the second quarter and a step-back jumper by Will Thomas tied it at 25-25. Sam Van Rossom soon put Valencia in charge, 33-32, with a triple and a jump hook by Bojan Dubljevic fixed the halftime score at 36-35. The third quarter saw 10 lead changes, but Dubljevic and Joan Sastre fueled a 7-0 run and Will Thomas added a couple of three-pointers for a 64-56 Valencia margin through 30 minutes. The hosts improved the margin to 73-58 midway through the fourth quarter to seal a hard-fought win.

PIVOTAL PERFORMER

Vives stepped up when Valencia struggled most, following a layup-plus-foul with a three-pointer off the dribble to go from 12-22 to 21-23. His effort was shown in the stats sheet, too; Vives finished the game with 8 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals. A true all-around performance for a PIR of 20.

GAME-CHANGING MOMENT

Defense in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter made the difference. Valencia led 64-56 after three quarters and allowed just 2 points in six minutes. The hosts opened the fourth quarter with an 11-2 run and never looked back to seal a difficult win.

DID YOU NOTICE?

The EuroCup's scoring king is back in the competition - and ready to set the bar higher and higher! With his 14 points tonight, Dubljevic now leads the standings with 1,231. His teammate Rafa Martinez, who is currently injured, is second overall at 1,200. The next active scorer is Sammy Mejia, who ranks 20th with 909 points. Dubljevic is set to keep first place for a long time.

STELLAR STAT

Valencia committed only 11 turnovers and collected 10 steals due to its overall activity on defense. ASVEL only had 4 steals and committed 17 turnovers, which made the difference down the stretch in what had been a very balanced game for 27 minutes.

NEXT GAME:

Valencia visits Turk Telekom Ankara on Wednesday, October 10 at 19:00 CET. A day earlier, on Tuesday, October 9 at 20:30 CET, ASVEL plays its home opener against Dolomiti Energia Trento.

Will Thomas - Valencia Basket (photo Valencia) - EC18

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Eurocupbasketball.com

Referees: RADOVIC, SRETEN; PEERANDI, RAIN; UDYANSKYY, EDUARD

Attendance: 6737

By Quarter	1	2	3	4
Valencia Basket	12	24	28	20
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne	17	18	21	6

End of Quarter	1	2	3	4
Valencia Basket	12	36	64	84
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne	17	35	56	62

Valencia Basket

							Rebounds						Blocks		Fouls
#	Player	Min	Pts	2FG	3FG	FT	O	D	T	As	St	To	Fv	Ag	Cm	Rv	PIR
1	GARCIA, SERGI	8:05						2	2			2				1	1
6	ABALDE, ALBERTO	28:46		0/2	0/2			4	4	1	2	1		1	3		-2
7	LABEYRIE, LOUIS	26:21	13	6/7	0/1	1/2	1	3	4	1		1	1		2	2	15
9	VAN ROSSOM, SAM	23:06	8	1/4	1/2	3/4		2	2	5	1	1			2	4	12
10	THOMAS, WILL	19:46	16	5/7	2/2		1	2	3						1	1	17
14	DUBLJEVIC, BOJAN	22:22	14	4/10	1/3	3/3	3	3	6	4	2	1		1	1	2	17
16	VIVES, GUILLEM	13:36	8	2/3	1/2	1/1	1	3	4	6	3				2	3	20
21	THOMAS, MATT	25:45	10	3/6	1/5	1/1		2	2	2		1		2	2	1	3
30	SASTRE, JOAN	15:33	7	2/2		3/3						2				2	7
42	DOORNEKAMP, AARON	15:42	8		1/2	5/6	1	2	3	1	2	2			3	3	10
50	GALARZA, JON	0:58		0/1													-1
	Team						3	2	5								5
	Totals	200:00	84	23/42	7/19	17/20	10	25	35	20	10	11	1	4	16	19	104
				54.8%	36.8%	85%

Head coach: PONSARNAU, JAUME

Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating

LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne

							Rebounds						Blocks		Fouls
#	Player	Min	Pts	2FG	3FG	FT	O	D	T	As	St	To	Fv	Ag	Cm	Rv	PIR
6	MALEDON, THEO	16:45	8	2/5	1/1	1/1				2		2		1	2	3	5
8	SLAUGHTER, AJ	20:55	6	0/5	2/3			2	2	1					2		1
9	KALNIETIS, MANTAS	22:13	3	0/4	1/2		1	2	3	6	1	5				1	4
11	GALLIOU, CHARLES	5:10								1					2		-1
12	NOUA, AMINE	25:39	8	4/8	0/2		2	3	5	1		1	2		3	3	9
14	SOW, KHADIM	9:24	2	1/1						1		1			3		-1
15	BILAN, MIRO	27:53	12	5/7		2/2	1	6	7	1	1	3	1		3	4	18
20	NELSON, DEMARCUS	12:11	4	2/4				2	2	1		2			3
23	LIGHTY, DAVID	26:36	6	3/8			2	1	3	1			1		1	1	6
24	BRIKI, SOFIANE	3:16		0/1	0/2			1	1								-2
55	KAHUDI, CHARLES	29:58	13	3/5	2/4	1/2	1	5	6	1	2	3				4	18
	Team						3	1	4								4
	Totals	200:00	62	20/48	6/14	4/5	10	23	33	16	4	17	4	1	19	16	61
				41.7%	42.9%	80%

Head coach: MITROVIC, ZVEZDAN

Head Coaches

PONSARNAU, JAUME

Valencia Basket

"We improved our intensity, aggressiveness and mentality tonight, and I think this was the key. Our team wants to play hard every day and wants to work on its mentality in every practice. For this, I am happy because we showed good team mentality. As a coach, I will always say that what's important is that we offered an improved effort, the intensity and all those things we want to be good at. We had just played against a team (Unicaja, in the Spanish League) that had been better than us. I have to say that tonight's win helps us calm down a little bit, especially the way we started the game, being nervous trying to please our fans, rushing things a bit, but with good mentality. Rushing things did not allow us to be our best level on defense. ASVEL played well and took advantage of it. The game gave us something good; it showed our ability to bounce back. After our previous games, the team gave a good answer through defense. We were not very inspired, but had a good mentality and the right ideas in mind. We managed to find players during the game, and that allowed us to compete and be better than our opponent from the fifth minute."

MITROVIC, ZVEZDAN

LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne

"I think we played three quarters, maybe 25 minutes, at a good level. We have young talent and I had the chance to play some players aged 17, 19, 21. We didn't have two big guys under the basket (Alpha Kaba and Jean-Charles Livio, injured), but after Valencia played aggressive defense, we started to make turnovers, made mistakes and lost the game. I think that maybe we didn't deserve to lose by 22 points in the end, but I hope this was a good lesson. We have two injured guys at positions '4' and '5' and signed a new player because we cannot play with Miro Bilan and Khadim Sow, our young guy. The difference was how aggressive Valencia was; they shot 23 free throws against 5, and that shows you the kind of aggressiveness and what happened on the court. We tried to do our best, but one more time, I think this is a big lesson for us, and what's most important tonight. The good point tonight was Theo Maledon, our youngest guy, very talented. We played 25 minutes in a good way and after that, we went down. There cannot be many good things when you lose by 22 points in the end, but maybe this experience for our young talents like Theo and Khadim, and that's it."

Players

VIVES, GUILLEM

Valencia Basket

"We found solutions in the second half. We played better defense and scored easier. It is important to win at home in this competition. The first phase of the competition is very tough. We have to try to win here, at home, and this win is very important. We have to continue our work."

THOMAS, WILL

Valencia Basket

"We got off to a bad start in the first five-six minutes, but then we fought back into the game. We played very well in the last three quarters. We played with energy, with effort and that is what got us the win."