Valencia dominates on opening night

Valencia Basket made an early statement of intent by routing ratiopharm Ulm 95-58 in the opening game of Group D on Wednesday. The dominant hosts, who saw all 12 players score, took control early and increased the margin quickly. Valencia was paced by 14 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals from Bojan Dubljevic. Vladimir Jankovic added 12 points, Antoine Diot had 11 points and 6 assists, Pierre Oriola collected 11 points plus 8 rebounds, and Luke Sikma also finished with 11 in victory. Chris Babb responded with 14 points for Ulm, with Raymar Morgan adding 12 and Braydon Hobbs scoring 10 in defeat.

A coast-to-coast layup by Babb gave Ulm an early 5-7 lead, but Valencia found a go-to guy in Dubljevic, who led a 10-0 run to put his team fully in charge, 15-7. Dubljevic kept pacing Valencia and a layup by Jankovic gave Valencia its first double-digit lead, 26-16, after 10 minutes. Oriola shone early in the second quarter, extending Valencia's lead to 38-24. An 8-0 run that Will Thomas capped with free throws kept Valencia way ahead, 48-34, at halftime. The hosts kept rolling after the break, as three-pointers by Diot, Sikma and Fernando San Emeterio broke the game open, 61-38, midway through the third quarter. Rafa Martinez joined the three-point shootout and Dubljevic boosted Valencia's margin to 71-45 after 30 minutes. Nothing changed after that, as Valencia extended its lead to 81-45 and cruised to a well-deserved win.