Valencia Basket thrashed visiting CEZ Basketball Nymburk 104-55 on Tuesday night to advance to the Eurocup quarterfinals for the seventh time in club history. Valencia ends the Last 16 with a 4-2 record, the same as Group J champion Bilbao, but due to two losses in head-to-head matches Valencia finishes in the second place and will play Unics Kazan in the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, Nymburk was eliminated prior to this game, and finishes the Last 16 with a 1-5 record. Valencia took control and lead for good after a 12-2 first-quarter run. The hosts pulled away to a 51-27 lead on the wings of a 15-0 run sparked by 2 triples from Rafa Martinez and some stellar defensive effort. An 11-2 run early in the third extended the margin to 30 points, and Valencia cruised to a huge victory and a quarterfinals spot. Pau Ribas scored 20 points, and Vitor Faverani had 16 points plus 7 rebounds to lead the winners. Martinez and Justin Doellman each scored 12, and Serhiy Lishchuk added 11 points for Valencia. Michael Efevberha finished with 12 for the visitors, Demond Carter 11 and Petr Benda 9.
Lishchuk, Ribas and Doellman all started the game with dunks that got Valencia in front early. Nymburk replied with layup-plus-free throw from Petr Benda and a triple from Radoslav Rancik, but Lishchuk and Ribas started a 12-2 run capped by a triple from Thomas Kelati for a 23-12 Valencia lead. The visitors cut the deficit with a three-point play from Efevberha and a one-shot triple from Vojtech Hruban, before Jiri Welsch beat the buzzer with a layup to pull them within 29-22 after 10 minutes. Benda hit a jump shot and Miljan Pavkovic sank a triple early in the second quarter for Nymburk, but Valencia got to the foul line to maintain the margin. Then, a pair of triples from Martinez sparked a 15-0 run that also featured three fastbreak baskets helping the hosts built a huge 51-27 lead. Carter hit from long range to end the run, but a subsequent jumper from Ribas gave Valencia a commanding 55-32 halftime lead.
After Rancik hit a jumper to open the third quarter, five different Valencia players contributed with baskets in an 11-2 run, as Thomas Kelati hit a three for 66-36. The margin kept growing with a three-pointer from Ribas, as well as layups from Stefan Markovic and Faverani. The latter finished the third quarter with a basket-plus-free throw for a 79-42 Valencia advantage. There was no stopping Valencia in the fourth quarter, as Bojan Dubljevic and Faverani made it 91-48. Efevberha briefly stopped the lead from getting bigger by scoring 9 points, including a triple that made it 96-55, but the hosts finished the game on a 8-0 run to give themselves even more momentum going into the quarterfinals.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Eurocupbasketball.com