2020-21Regular SeasonRound 18
FC Barcelona 89
Valencia Basket 72
January 07, 2021 CET: 21:00
Local time: 21:00 PALAU BLAUGRANA

Barcelona bounces back against Valencia

FC Barcelona snapped its three-game losing streak by beating Valencia Basket 89-72 at Palau Blaugrana on Thursday. Barcelona improved to 12-6 in the standings, while Valencia dropped to 10-8. Alex Abrines led the winners with 16 points, Cory Higgins and Adam Hanga each scored 13 and Rolands Smits and Sergi Martinez got 10 apiece for Barcelona. Louis Labeyrie paced Valencia with 17 points, Mike Tobey posted 14 points and 10 rebounds and Joan Sastre had 13 points for the visitors. Barcelona led 18-12 after 10 minutes and extended it to 32-16 soon after that. Labeyrie, Nikola Kalinic and Tobey rallied Valencia to within 38-33 at halftime. Smits and Pierre Oriola helped Barcelona restore a 67-54 margin after 30 minutes and the hosts never looked back.

Higgins got Barcelona going with a floater, but Sastre followed a layup with a triple in a 0-7 run that Tobey capped with a backdoor basket. Higgins dunked off a steal and fed Hanga for a three-pointer. Higgins followed a three-pointer with a layup and got help from Smits, Martinez and Leo Westermann for an 18-10 Barcelona lead, which Martin Hermannsson cut to 18-12 after 10 minutes. Hermannsson and Labeyrie brought Valencia a bit closer, 20-16, early in the second quarter. It didn't last long, however, as Martinez scored twice around the basket and Abrines nailed back-to-back three-pointers in a 12-0 run highlighted by Hanga's dunk. Labeyrie sank consecutive triples, but so did Hanga for a 38-22 score. Labeyrie insisted from beyond the arc and Tobey added a dunk-and-foul in a 0-11 run which Prepelic capped with a buzzer-beating layup off a great inbound play to bring Valencia within 38-33 at halftime.

Kalinic followed a put-back basket with a driving layup soon after the break, but Nick Calathes made it 43-37. Derrick Williams erased Pierre Oriola's layup with a huge alley-oop dunk, but Higgins hit a jumper for a 47-39 score. Smits and Oriola soon allowed the hosts to restore a double-digit margin, 52-41. Sastre downed a floater and fed Labeyrie for a jumper, but Smits kept Barcelona fully in charge, 60-47. Sam Van Rossom and Sastre each hit a three-pointer. Oriola and Abrines boosted the hosts' margin to 67-54 after 30 minutes. Abrines and Oriola kept pushing Barcelona early in the fourth quarter and Martinez added a layup that broke the game open, 72-54. Abrines downed a three-pointer and Higgins scored again, but Prepelic brought Valencia within 77-63 with 6 minutes left. Valencia never gave up but Barcelona was on its way to a well-deserved win.

Pivotal performer

Nick Calathes had a strong all-around performance and just missed a triple-double. He finished the game with 8 points, 7 rebounds - all on the defensive end - and 7 assists, also drawing 3 fouls for a PIR of 15.

Game-changing moment

Barcelona found its rhythm early in the second quarter, turning defensive stops into easy baskets. Sergi Martinez scored twice down low, Alex Abrines buried consecutive three-pointers and Adam Hanga found space for an uncontested dunk. All of a sudden, Barcelona led 32-16 and even though Valencia returned to the game, the hosts never trailed after that.

Stellar stats

Barcelona committed only 6 turnovers - a season-low and the club's lowest number since October 2018. Valencia had twice as many, finishing the game with 12 turnovers. Barcelona made 11 of 19 three-point shots (57.9%) and Valencia buried 10 of 25 (40.0%).

Did you know?

Barcelona remains undefeated against Valencia at Palau Blaugrana in EuroLeague action - three victories in as many games. Barcelona is now 5-1 against Valencia in Europe's marquee competition. Valencia's only win, 81-76, came at La Fonenta on January 16, 2018. Bojan Dubljevic, who missed the game tonight, led the way in that game with 19 points.

Next game

Both teams return to EuroLeague action early next week - on Tuesday, January 12. Barcelona visits Khimki Moscow Region in a tactical battle between Lithuanian legends Rimas Kurtinaitis and Sarunas Jasikevicius. Valencia visits AX Armani Exchange Milan.

Alex Abrines - FC Barcelona - EB20
Thursday, January 7, 2021
Euroleague.net
Referees: PATERNICO, CARMELO; SILVA, SERGIO; NIKOLIC, UROS
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
FC Barcelona18202922
Valencia Basket12212118
End of Quarter1234
FC Barcelona18386789
Valencia Basket12335472
FC Barcelona
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
2 WESTERMANN, LEO 16:23 5 1/3 1/2         4 1       2   5
8 HANGA, ADAM 20:58 13 1/1 3/4 2/2 1 1 2 2 1 1 1   4 2 15
9 BOLMARO, LEANDRO 1:16   0/1     1   1                
10 SMITS, ROLANDS 21:13 10 4/8 0/1 2/2 3 1 4   1 1     4 2 7
14 PUSTOVYI, ARTEM 5:30                   1 2     1 2
18 ORIOLA, PIERRE 30:16 9 2/4   5/8 2 3 5 1   1     2 5 12
21 ABRINES, ALEX 17:35 16 1/2 4/6 2/2         1   1     3 18
22 HIGGINS, CORY 23:52 13 5/9 1/1         2 2       2 4 15
23 MARTINEZ, SERGI 22:57 10 5/8 0/1   4 4 8 1 1       4 1 13
24 KURIC, KYLE 12:51 5 1/3 1/2     2 2           3   1
25 BADIO, BRANCOU DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
99 CALATHES, NICK 27:09 8 2/6 1/2 1/3   7 7 7   2   1   3 15
Team           4 1 5               5
Totals 200:00 89 22/45 11/19 12/17 15 19 34 17 7 6 4 1 21 21 108
        48.9% 57.9% 70.6%
Head coach: JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS
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 9:36 7 1/2 1/5 2/2   1 1 2   1     2 1 3
4 PRADILLA, JAIME 11:38   0/2     1   1 1       1 2   -3
6 PUERTO, JOSEP 1:37                              
7 LABEYRIE, LOUIS 28:11 17 2/3 4/6 1/2 1 3 4 1   1       2 19
9 VAN ROSSOM, SAM 27:08 4 0/1 1/5 1/1       3 1 2   1 1   -1
10 TOBEY, MIKE 24:10 14 3/4 1/3 5/6 3 7 10 1   2 1   3 5 22
12 KALINIC, NIKOLA 21:33 8 3/4   2/2 2 1 3 3 2 3     2 3 13
16 VIVES, GUILLEM 16:15 1 0/1 0/3 1/2   3 3 3         4 2  
19 SAN EMETERIO, FERNANDO 12:09   0/1       1 1 2 1     1   2 4
21 WILLIAMS, DERRICK 15:56 4 1/2   2/2   2 2 1         3 3 6
24 HERMANNSSON, MARTIN 14:36 4 1/2   2/2           1     1 2 3
30 SASTRE, JOAN 17:11 13 2/4 3/3   1   1 1   2   1 3 1 8
Team           2 1 3     2         1
Totals 200:00 72 13/26 10/25 16/19 10 19 29 18 4 14 1 4 21 21 75
        50% 40% 84.2%
Head coach: PONSARNAU, JAUME

Head Coaches

JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS
FC Barcelona
"Congratulations to our players, the effort was great today. We really played with amazing energy from the beginning until the end. In some situations, actually, most situations, we knew what we were going to give up and what we were not going to give up. Even though at the end of the first quarter and the end of the second quarter we gave up the big leads, the consistency stayed through for 40 minutes. I believe that Leo [Westermann] can contribute a lot of things, like he did today. I think he lacks rhythm, but knows our systems really well, he spent two years with us. His numbers don't tell the value of what he did in tonight's game. He was always at the right place, at the right time, helping and talking. He provided some of the experience that we need, he was solid and this is what we were looking for. I think that it is obvious that the kid didn't have a lot of rhythm after not playing for more than two weeks and he will improve. We said in the last two days that we cannot arrive at a game against Valencia to play like we did in the Spanish League, allowing 100 points. We know that without Niko [Mirotic], Brandon [Davies] and Victor [Claver], it is hard for us to reach 90 points, so we have to be consistent on defense. By playing a good defensive game and cutting turnovers, we reached good numbers on offense. In general, we dominated from a physical standpoint, also the rebounds, and that is something that all coaches like a lot."
PONSARNAU, JAUME
Valencia Basket
"We started the game well. It looked like that 2-7 opening run made us start the game well, but all of a sudden, we completely lost our concentration. We were confused and had too many offenses looking for an advantage while Barcelona was playing really good defense. We finished those offenses really bad, with a lot of turnovers. I believe that we had 9 turnovers in the first quarter. It was horrible. We returned to the game because we started to play better on offense, not because of our defense, because we kept having rebounding problems. That was the other big problem we were having. In the second half, we tried and couldn't do it against Barcelona, which played really well, very physical. Today, we didn't know how to play against such a physical team. We lacked a clear mind and conviction. When we had better vibrations, our defense was not there. Barcelona deserves a lot of credit for their physicality in tonight's game. We are disappointed, but we had a really bad game."

Players

ABRINES, ALEX
FC Barcelona
"We know the things we have to do. We played great defense, in the second half especially, and that is what it takes. We remembered our last game here against Valencia, they scored 100 points, and our mentality today was defense. It is a great start [of the second half of the regular season]. We also had a great start to the season, so we just have to keep working. We know that in the last couple of games, we played the way we wanted and it is always good to win and now, we just have to move on, keep improving on some details, but like I said, sometimes the win is more important than playing good."
HIGGINS, CORY
FC Barcelona
"I think we obviously had a good mindset going into this game. If we play defense, we usually play well. We really defended today and that's all we needed because we have been on this skid. We had the right mindset and got the win. We have been in a little bit of a losing streak lately so we had to come out with the right mindset. That was defend first and worry about the rest later and that is how we got the win."
TOBEY, MIKE
Valencia Basket
"I think we didn't have our best game today. They got a lot of offensive rebounds and we turned the ball over a lot. Defensively, we were not as solid as we needed to be. Like I said, it wasn't our best game. Hopefully, we can bounce back after this. Props to them, they played well. They played more physical than us and that's it, it wasn't our best game."