2020-21Regular SeasonRound 14
December 16, 2020 CET: 20:30
Local time: 21:30 PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP STADIUM

Valencia triumphs in Piraeus after 17 years

Valencia Basket got a valuable 85-96 win over Olympiacos Piraeus at the Peace and Friendship Stadium on Wednesday night, snapping a nine-game losing streak against the Reds. It was the second time that Valencia ever claimed a victory on that court; the first was in November 2003. The visitors, who improved to 9-5, took control of the game from the very beginning, built a double-digit lead early in the second quarter, enlarged it to 54-71 in the third and resisted all comeback attempts launched by the hosts in the fourth. Bojan Dubljevic paced the winners with 20 points and 9 boards in just 23 minutes. Derrick Williams contributed 16 in the same playing time, while Nikola Kalinic provided 14 and Klemen Prepeplic added 11. Olympiacos, which fell to 7-6, was led by Kostas Sloukas, who tallied 18 points and 7 assists. Shaqueille McKissic followed him with 16 points, Sasha Vezenkov had 14 points and 7 rebounds, and Livio Jean-Charles scored 14 in defeat.

Fernando San Emeterio contributed 6 points and Dubljevic added a layup to put the visitors in front, 5-8, in the early going. Olympiacos struggled on offense as it couldn’t find anyone other than Jean-Charles and Vasilis Charalampopoulos on the offensive end. That allowed Valencia to build a double-digit lead, 9-19, thanks to balanced scoring distribution. Sloukas and Vassilis Spanoulis came to the rescue from the line, but Kalinic and Williams responded from the same place to close the first quarter with a 16-25 visitors’ edge. Mike Tobey provided a three-point play and Martin Hermannsson drilled a three to help Valencia amass a 20-31 lead, which Dubljevic and Williams extended to 22-35 soon after. Vezenkov took over after the Reds called for an urgent timeout, sparking a reaction that Spanoulis fueled from deep and McKissic capped from the line to reduce the gap to 32-37. The visitors didn’t panic and counterattacked with Kalinic, who led his team’s offense to recover a comfortable margin, 34-45. Then Prepelic showed up, hitting a fast break three and adding 2 free throws to give the visitors a 39-52 advantage at halftime.

Sloukas came up big after the break, pouring in a triple and feeding Jean-Charles inside to bring Olympiacos within 44-52. A technical foul called on Coach Georgios Bartzokas aborted the reaction, though, as Dubljevic followed with 7 points in a row to make it 46-62. The hosts found some momentum from behind the arc, but so did Valencia. Prepelic, Dubljevic and Williams drilled a three each to raise the difference to 54-71, but the Reds didn’t surrender. Hassan Martin and McKissic led an 11-3 run that kept Olympiacos alive, although Mike Tobey's tip-in helped Valencia retain a double-digit lead, 65-76, entering the last quarter. The defensive intensity increased on both ends as neither team managed to make any run and each basket was immediately responded to by the opponent. Williams banked in a tough shot and Kalinic followed with 4 points of his own to make it 76-90 with less than 3 minutes to play. The hosts found free throws by Vezenkov and a timely triple off an offensive rebound from Sloukas to try to stay into the game, 81-90. It ended up becoming the last attempt for Olympiacos, though, as Dubljevic and Hermannsson secured a couple of free throws each to seal the outcome in the last minute of the game.

Excellent offense

Leading the competition in two-point shooting and assists, the visitors proved again to be one of the most efficient teams on offense. They had an impressive 65.7% on two-point shooting, 47.6% on three-pointers and dished 20 assists. Valencia was 6 for 6 on twos in the first 12 minutes of the game until Nikola Kalinic missed a basket in the second quarter.

Pivotal performer

Bojan Dubljevic had an impressive performance against the Reds, not only because of being able to score 20 points on very good percentages, to grab 6 offensive rebounds and to register a PIR of 29, but for doing in in just 23 minutes on court.

Did you know?

Valencia Basket had a 1-9 record against Olympiacos and was on a nine-game losing streak against the Greek powerhouse before this game. Valencia’s only victory in Piraeus before took place on November 13, 2003, when it defeated Olympiacos 69-77 behind 16 points from Dimos Dikoudis.

Next game

Olympiacos Piraeus will try to bounce back in 48 hours against another Spanish team; the Reds host Real Madrid on Friday, December 18. Valencia Basket will stay on the road to visit Belgrade to face Crvena Zvezda the same day.

Bojan Dubljevic - Valencia Basket - EB20
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Euroleague.net
Referees: BOLTAUZER, MATEJ; ROSSI, MICHELE; VYKLICKY, ROBERT
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
Olympiacos Piraeus16232620
Valencia Basket25272420
End of Quarter1234
Olympiacos Piraeus16396585
Valencia Basket25527696
Olympiacos Piraeus
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
2 HARRISON, AARON 19:58 3 1/2 0/2 1/1       1 1 1     2 1  
4 CHARALAMPOPOULOS, VASILIS 7:39 2 1/1 0/3         1         2   -2
5 LARENTZAKIS, GIANNOULIS 5:50 1   0/2 1/2 1   1           1 1 -1
7 SPANOULIS, VASSILIS 8:18 7 1/1 1/1 2/2       2 1 2       1 9
11 SLOUKAS, KOSTAS 32:39 18 0/2 4/8 6/6   2 2 7 1 2   1 2 4 21
12 MARTIN, HASSAN 22:45 8 3/5   2/3 3   3     1     2 3 8
14 VEZENKOV, SASHA 20:03 14 3/3 1/3 5/6 3 4 7 2         3 5 22
15 PRINTEZIS, GEORGIOS 2:25 2 1/2       1 1             2 4
17 JEAN-CHARLES, LIVIO 27:45 14 4/6 2/3 0/1 4 3 7 2 1   2 1 3 4 22
22 JENKINS, CHARLES 15:48   0/1 0/1     1 1 1         2   -2
32 ELLIS, OCTAVIUS 6:50   0/3     1   1         1 1   -4
77 MCKISSIC, SHAQUIELLE 30:00 16 4/10 1/3 5/6   1 1 2 2 1     2 4 13
Team           3   3     1         2
Totals 200:00 85 18/36 9/26 22/27 15 12 27 18 6 8 2 3 20 25 92
        50% 34.6% 81.5%
Head coach: BARTZOKAS, GEORGIOS
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
Valencia Basket
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
3 PREPELIC, KLEMEN 23:02 11 1/2 2/6 3/3 1 1 2 4   2   1 2 2 9
4 PRADILLA, JAIME DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
6 PUERTO, JOSEP 0:01                              
7 LABEYRIE, LOUIS 14:56 8 1/2 1/1 3/4   4 4     3 2 1 3 4 9
9 VAN ROSSOM, SAM 17:04   0/1 0/2     3 3 1   2     4   -5
10 TOBEY, MIKE 17:03 12 4/4 1/2 1/1 2 1 3 2         2 2 16
12 KALINIC, NIKOLA 25:11 14 5/7 0/1 4/4 1 3 4 3 1 2     3 3 17
14 DUBLJEVIC, BOJAN 22:51 20 6/9 2/3 2/2 6 3 9 2 1 1     1 3 29
16 VIVES, GUILLEM 24:38   0/1           3 2       3   1
19 SAN EMETERIO, FERNANDO 17:13 8 1/3 1/2 3/3 1 1 2 2         1 3 11
21 WILLIAMS, DERRICK 22:46 16 4/4 2/3 2/2 1 3 4 1   1     3 2 18
24 HERMANNSSON, MARTIN 15:15 7 1/2 1/1 2/2       2 1 1 1   3 1 7
Team             1 1     1          
Totals 200:00 96 23/35 10/21 20/21 12 20 32 20 5 13 3 2 25 20 112
        65.7% 47.6% 95.2%
Head coach: PONSARNAU, JAUME

Head Coaches

BARTZOKAS, GEORGIOS
Olympiacos Piraeus
"First of all I want to congratulate Valencia, they play excellent. They deserved to win 100%. Talking about our team, we didn’t deserve any better, we had a completely wrong attitude in the first half and I’m really disappointed because of this. It’s not the first time we are coming from a big win on the road and we start the game, even with several different lineups, with the same attitude; we don’t want to touch anybody. We said that the approach in today’s game was to be physical, we had to play aggressive and the only physical team was Valencia. My job is not to create the potential of the team, the potential exists, this is obvious because you can see the game against Barcelona. We played well, we are a good team. But the attitude, the fighting spirit, the things we need to do to win the game, that’s my responsibility. I don’t know how long it will take, in which persons I have to base on, but sooner or later I will find out."
PONSARNAU, JAUME
Valencia Basket

"We believe in our game, in shooting the ball well, it is very important to pass the ball, that’s our concept of basketball. We have guys at the low post, like Dubljevic, Kalinic, Williams and San Emeterio, and can play dynamical situations, in transitions, pick-and-roll, that’s our philosophy. [After this win] we have extra confidence, but the most important thing now is that we know the next game is a new game and we have to play the same way we played this one."

"We had a good start of the game, in the first minutes we made a step forward in our defense, we controlled their creation players, and when we controlled the rebounds we run very well. The injury of Printezis probably made it a different game, but I think we played today our most consistent game of the season so far. In the second half, Olympiacos improved its aggressiveness in defense, but we didn’t lose control of our emotions. We knew how to play our advantages inside, not only for the scorers, but to move the ball well and attract the attention of the defense."

Players

WILLIAMS, DERRICK
Valencia Basket
"[Seven guys in double-digits in scoring] means that we have really a good team, from top to bottom. It doesn’t matter who starts, we have lots of guys in this team that can really play, whoever’s name is called, is ready to play as you could see tonight. I’m trying to prime myself especially in the fourth, because when it comes to winning time, at the end of the day the only motivation you need is winning, when it comes to winning you want to give all you have to the team."
DUBLJEVIC, BOJAN
Valencia Basket
"I think we had a great game. We controlled all the game long and it was an important game for us, because we are going through a tough schedule with a lot of games this month. I’m happy for the team. Now we have to keep our focus. Mike [Tobey] is a great player, I think he's had a great season so far, he can do several things, he helps me a lot. We are good big guys."