Doellman and Valencia crush Alba in Game 1

Valencia Basket made a statement, and put one foot in the Eurocup Semifinals, with a resounding 86-54 win over Alba Berlin in Game 1 of the Eurocup Quarterfinals on Wednesday night. Using its relentless defense, Valencia raced away to a victory which means it will advance with either a win or a loss up to 31 points in the second quarterfinal leg next week in Berlin, Germany. The Spanish side started its wild 23-0 run late in the first quarter behind Justin Doellman, who scored 21 points before halftime, and defense that produced a handful of fast breaks. Valencia scored 19 straight points to open the second quarter, opening up 41-17 lead, before margin reached 31 points already in the second quarter. After 51-22 at halftime, Valencia was up by as much as 39 points at the start of the fourth quarter, cruising to a huge win and advantage it will carry over into the Game 2. Doellman finished with 33 points and 4 steals. Sam Van Rossom netted 17 points, Oliver Lafayette had 8 points and 8 assists, while Pau Ribas also scored 8 in victory. David Logan had 12 points for Alba, Leon Radosevic scored 10, while Reggie Redding and Cliff Hammonds scored 8 apiece in defeat.

After Jan-Hendrick Jagla and Doellman traded triples to open the game, three-pointers from Logan and Alex King put the visitors up 10-13. However, Doellman and Sato quickly put Valencia up for good, and Doellman beat the buzzer at the end of the quarter with a fastbreak alley-oop layup for 22-17. It got crowd to its feet, and was just a sign of things to come. Valencia's aggressive defense forced six turnovers in the opening five minutes of the second quarter, which led to the hosts running one fast break after another. Valencia scored on 8 of its 10 trips down the floor, as Doellman fueled the run with 8 straight points, before Rafa Martinez hit one, and Pablo Aguilar hit a pair of triples on back-to-back-to-back possessions. Oliver Lafayette capped it all with a layup for 41-17. David Logan drove for a short jumper to end Alba's drought midway through the second, but the hosts' defense forced more turnovers. Sam Van Rossom knocked down back-to-back three-pointers, and Valencia had as much as a 31-point gap before going into halftime up 51-22.

Redding, Leon Radosevic and Logan scored more often at the start of the third for the visitors, but Doellman hit twice inside, while Ribas and Bojan Dubljevic scored from downtown, extending it to 61-28. Logan added another three, and Vojdan Stojanovski scored a jumper, but a triple from Lafayette, a basket-plus-foul from Doellman, and a pair of buckets from Van Rossom got Valencia to 73-37 after three quarters. Doellman’s triple made it 76-37 at the start of the fourth, before Hammonds responded with 6 points, and Jagla hit a triple, helping Alba to 81-48. Before game’s end, Hammonds and Radosevic scored from close range for the visitors, while Lafayette hit from the distance for Valencia, the hosts’ 12th triple of the night, closing out the game.