Valencia has no trouble at home with Ostend

Valencia Basket Club eased to a comfortable 101-74 victory at home over Telenet Ostend in its opening game in Group O of the Eurocup Last 32. Bojan Dubljevic paced five Valencia players in double figures with 18 points, 12 rebounds and 3 blocks. Justin Doellman added 17 points, Romain Sato 14, and Pau Ribas and Juan Jose Triguero both had 11. Ostend lost despite Ryan Thompson scoring 21 points while Brent Wright and Khalid Boukichou both had 12.

Doellman scored four points as the hosts went ahead 9-6. The game was tied at 12-12 when Dubljevic sparked an 8-0 run to make it 20-12. Wright’s three-point play however cut it back to 22-19. The Valencia cushion was 26-19 after 10 minutes. After a Wes Wilkinson trey for Ostend, Dubljevic had four points in a 9-0 Valencia run and a triple from Lubos Barton increased the margin to 18 points, 42-24. The guests would get it back down to 11 points before treys from Sato and Rafa Martinez left Valencia ahead 54-39 at halftime. Ostend could not cut into the gap in the second half as Triguero, Sam Van Rossom and Barton helped move the lead to 73-52. The guests did respond with a 2-9 surge to make it a 14-point game. But the gap was 77-61 after three quarters and an Oliver Lafayette three-ball grew the cushion to 89-65 early in the fourth. Ostend did not get closer than 17 points in the fourth quarter and the lead bulged to 29 points in the final seconds.