Barcelona routs Valencia to set up showdown with Mega

U18 FC Barcelona rolled past host side U18 Valencia Basket 48-109 to improve to 2-0 at the 2021 Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Finals and set up a showdown with U18 Mega SoccerBet Belgrade for a spot in the ANGT Championship Game. Barcelona, the 2016 continental champion, wasted no time as it had a 5-19 run in the first quarter to blow the Group B game wide open straight away. Michael Caicedo paced six Barcelona players in double figures with 20 points while Ian Granja scored 17, Martin Iglesias and Teodor Simic both tallied 16 and Agustin Ubal had 14. James Nnaji, for his part, finished with 10 points, 8 rebounds and 4 blocks and Rafa Villar went scoreless but added 8 rebounds and 9 assists in the win. Valencia dropped to 0-2 in the group as it shot just 25.0% on two-pointers and 18.4% from long range. Carlos Campillos was Valencia’s only player in double figures with 10 points. Andreu Saez collected 7 points and 10 rebounds.

After Campillos tallied the first points of the game for Valencia, Barcelona went on its first big run. Inaki Ordonez tallied 8 points in a 5-19 run for a 7-19 lead. Ubal drained 2 three-pointers and Granja added a long ball of his own as Barcelona led 13-30 after 10 minutes. Valencia went almost 3 minutes without scoring in the second quarter before Saez found the bottom of the net. Barcelona flexed its muscle after that, though, with a 4-26 run including 12 straight points by Iglesias for a 19-63 lead, which was 21-63 at intermission. The game was already decided and the rest of the contest was about Valencia trying at least to hold its own and maybe win a quarter. Freds Bagatskis knocked down 2 three-pointers and Campillos also hit from deep as it was 34-75. But Barcelona raced away with the next 10 points and was leading 36-85 after 30 minutes. Hector Marco hit the first two points of the final frame for Valencia only to see Barcelona just keep rolling with a 3-21 run.