Valencia fends off Olympiacos for opening victory

U18 Valencia Basket opened the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Valencia with an 81-70 victory over U18 Olympiacos Piraeus as the home side looks to win the tournament for a second straight season. Alonso Faure paced four Valencia players in double figures with 25 points and 11 rebounds for a PIR of 32 while Millan Jimenez had 14 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals; Alejandro Ruiz and Freds Bagatskis both scored 11 points and Guillem Ferrando chipped in 4 points, 6 rebounds and 9 assists in the opening game in Group A. Valencia, which saw a 23-point third quarter lead cut to 5 points early in the fourth period, committed only 10 turnovers and held Olympiacos to 39.5 percent shooting on two-pointers and 27.3 percent three-pointers. Iosif Koloveros poured in 21 points with 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals for Olympiacos with Alexandros Nikolaidis adding 20 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists.

Valencia took initial control of the game with a 13-5 run as Diego Rivas scored 7 points for a 18-9 lead. The Olympiacos attack was mainly Koloveros, who scored the side’s first nine points with no other Olympiacos player getting on the scoreboard in the first 8 minutes. And Valencia led 24-15 lead after 10 minutes. Faure dominated the second quarter with 10 points and 5 rebounds before Bagatskis’ three-pointer gave Valencia a 42-22 lead. Olympiacos was able to cut the gap to 15 points but trailed 51-33 at the break. The advantage grew to 56-33 before Olympiacos put together a 0-12 run with a Panagiotis Tsamis three-point play and a Nikolaidis three-pointer to pull within 57-47. A three-ball from Tsamis trimmed the deficit to 64-58 and the gap was 66-58 after 30 minutes. The cushion was down to five points at 66-61 following Sotorios Oikonomopoulos’ three-pointer to start the fourth quarter. Ruiz responded with a three-point play and two free throws and the home side built the lead to 73-61. Nikolaidis punched back with two triples and Olympiacos was down just 76-70 inside the final two minutes only to see Ruiz answer with an inside layup and the Olympiacos momentum was withstood.