2020-21Regular SeasonRound 31
Valencia Basket 83
FC Bayern Munich 76
March 25, 2021 CET: 21:00
Local time: 21:00 LA FONTETA

Valencia tops Bayern to fuel playoff hopes

In a thriller that came down to the wire, Valencia Basket kept its Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs hopes very much alive by downing FC Bayern Munich 83-76 at La Fonteta on Thursday. Valencia improved to 17-14 in the standings and with its third straight win. Bayern dropped to 19-12. Mike Tobey led the winners with 18 points, Nikola Kalinic added 12, Derrick Williams had 11 and Bojan Dubljevic 12 for Valencia. Vladimir Lucic paced Valencia with 20 points. Wade Baldwin IV added 13 for the visitors. It was a back-and-forth battle in which Valencia had the final word. Valencia led 23-12 early and improved its margin to 52-40 soon after the break. Lucic and Zan Sisko fueled a 2-23 run that seemed to switch the game's momentum, 55-63. Valencia bounced back, but Bayern managed to tie the game at 70-70. Sam Van Rossom, Tobey and Williams combined for all the points in an 8-0 run that put Valencia ahead for good.

Williams got Valencia going with a three-pointer and Tobey added an alley-oop slam for a 5-0 lead. Lucic, Guillem Vives and Baldwin each struck from downtown, then JaJuan Johnson hit a jumper that tied it at 8-8. Vives, Tobey, Kalinic and Klemen Prepelic each hit a triple to make it a double-digit margin, 23-12. Jalen Reynolds and Nick Weiler-Babb combined for all the points in a 0-7 Bayern run, but Joan Sastre hit a wild three-pointer for a 26-19 Valencia lead after 10 minutes. Dubljevic downed a jump hook early in the second quarter. D.J. Seeley stepped up for Bayern, but Tobey followed a dunk-and-foul with an alley-oop slam and Van Rossom added a driving layup to cause the guests to stop the game at 37-25. Leon Radosevic banked in a close shot that Vanja Marinkovic improved on with a triple. Lucic and Baldwin rescued Bayern, but Williams and Dubljevic kept Valencia in charge. Kalinic banked in a close shot to fix the halftime score at 46-33.

Lucic and Paul Zipser brought Bayern within single digits, 46-37, soon after the break. Prepelic revived Valencia and also found Tobey for a dunk and a layup, but a red-hot Lucic got his team within 52-45. Lucic matched Kalinic's backdoor layup with a tip-in, Weiler-Babb struck from downtown and Radosevic added a layup to bring the guests within 54-52. Zipser completed Bayern's comeback with a bomb from downtown, 54-55. Sisko fed Lucic for a dunk, buried a jumper and added a layup that capped a 2-23 run for a 55-63 Bayern margin. Dubjevic sank a triple that made it 58-63 after 30 minutes. Van Rossom hit an off-balance jumper early in the fourth quarter and Sastre buried a triple that tied it at 63-63. Zipser answered from beyond the arc and Weiler-Babb dunked, but Kalinic tied it again, 68-68. Tobey dunked and Van Rossom followed free throws with a layup for a 74-70 Valencia edge with 3 minutes left. Tobey kept pushing the hosts with a tip-in and Williams added a layup that made it an 8-point game. Baldwin followed a layup with a jumper and banked in a close shot to erase Williams's alley-oop dunk. Prepelic sealed the outcome from the foul line.

Pivotal performer

Mike Tobey was not 100% for this game but led his team to an important victory. He finished the game with 18 points on 7-of-9 two-point shooting plus 1-of-2 on three-pointers, adding 4 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal for a PIR of 22.

Game-changing moment

With the game tied at 70-70, Sam Van Rossom stepped up with a pair of free throws and a layup. Valencia got two more critical defensive stops. Meanwhile, Tobey took over with a tip-in and Van Rossom fed Derrick Williams for a close basket. All of sudden, Valencia led 78-70 with 2 minutes left and was well on its way to winning the game.

Stellar stat

Valencia heavily outrebounded Bayern by 40-29, pulling down 14 offensive boards. Valencia had 23 assists and Bayern only managed to get 16. Rebounds and assists allowed Valencia to stay in the game and eventually win it.

Did you know?

Both teams made the same number of fouls, 18 apiece. Valencia went to the foul line 19 times and made 16 attempts (84.2%). Bayern took 12 free throws and missed half of them.

Next game

Both teams return to EuroLeague action next week. Bayern hosts Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul on Tuesday, March 30. Valencia hosts Olympiacos Piraeus the next day.

Mike Tobey - Valencia Basket - EB20
Thursday, March 25, 2021
Euroleague.net
Referees: RYZHYK, BORYS; MAJKIC, MARIO ; SUKYS, ARTURAS
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
Valencia Basket26201225
FC Bayern Munich19143013
End of Quarter1234
Valencia Basket26465883
FC Bayern Munich19336376
Valencia Basket
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
2 MARINKOVIC, VANJA 16:45 3 0/2 1/5   1 2 3         1 1 1 -1
3 PREPELIC, KLEMEN 23:31 8 0/2 1/4 5/5 2 2 4 4 1     1 2 2 11
4 PRADILLA, JAIME DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
7 LABEYRIE, LOUIS 9:27           1 1     1       2 2
9 VAN ROSSOM, SAM 24:33 9 3/6 0/1 3/5   1 1 9 1 5     2 3 10
10 TOBEY, MIKE 21:22 18 7/9 1/2 1/1 1 3 4 2 1 1       1 22
12 KALINIC, NIKOLA 29:47 12 3/6 2/4   1 2 3 2 1 2   1 4 2 8
14 DUBLJEVIC, BOJAN 18:38 10 2/4 1/2 3/4 3 3 6 3 1 3   1 1 5 16
16 VIVES, GUILLEM 15:27 6   2/3   2 2 4 1 1 1   1 2   7
19 SAN EMETERIO, FERNANDO DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
21 WILLIAMS, DERRICK 24:48 11 2/4 1/1 4/4   7 7 2   1     3 2 16
30 SASTRE, JOAN 15:42 6   2/3     2 2           3   4
Team           4 1 5     1         4
Totals 200:00 83 17/33 11/25 16/19 14 26 40 23 6 15 0 5 18 18 99
        51.5% 44% 84.2%
Head coach: PONSARNAU, JAUME
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
FC Bayern Munich
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 WEILER-BABB, NICK 34:40 8 1/2 2/6     1 1 5 2 1 2   2 4 14
1 GEORGE, JASON DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2 BALDWIN IV, WADE 30:23 13 5/9 1/5 0/5 1 5 6 3   2 1   2 6 12
3 KRAEMER, DAVID DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
4 SEELEY, DENNIS 8:14 6   1/1 3/3       1 1 1     1 2 8
8 REYNOLDS, JALEN 18:16 6 3/7     2 2 4 2   4 2   2 2 6
11 LUCIC, VLADIMIR 37:09 20 5/5 3/6 1/2 3 4 7   2 1     3 3 24
12 FLACCADORI, DIEGO DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
16 ZIPSER, PAUL 26:53 9 0/3 3/8   3 1 4 2 2 1     2   6
25 JOHNSON, JAJUAN 11:30 4 2/3       1 1   1       3   2
31 SISKO, ZAN MARK 11:11 6 2/2 0/2 2/2 1 1 2 2 2       1 1 10
43 RADOSEVIC, LEON 21:44 4 2/6     1   1 1 1       2   1
Team           1 2 3               3
Totals 200:00 76 20/37 10/28 6/12 12 17 29 16 11 10 5 0 18 18 86
        54.1% 35.7% 50%
Head coach: TRINCHIERI, ANDREA

Head Coaches

PONSARNAU, JAUME
Valencia Basket
"I believe that the first half was the key. They didn't hit many shots and we dominated the boards. That allowed us to control the game rhythm and feel good. They outplayed us in the third quarter, playing very physical and switching to a different gear on defense. That created a lot of problems, up to the point that we were stressed. I believe that they had 8 steals in the third quarter. They rAn the floor and found easy points from beyond the arc, I believe they hit 5 of 6 three-point shots in that quarter. But we didn't lose our heads and I give credit to my team for this game. We beat a team that is a specialist In winning these sorts of games. We didn't lose our heads and found our defense. Defense was the key. Starting with defense and rebounds, we were able to run a couple of times, found more stability in our offensive game, and ended up winning the game."
TRINCHIERI, ANDREA
FC Bayern Munich
"Congrats to Valencia. It was a tough game for us and our last 4 minutes of the second quarter cost us the game. We are playing every 48 hours since three weeks and at the end we were dead, but we were able to produce a great third quarter that I knew that we could have, this kind of quarter, these 10 minutes. The point is that you have that quarter coming down from 13 because we had very bad reads, bad body language, bad attitude. At a certain point in the second quarter, we played like individuals, we melted down like individuals and we didn't play like a team. This cost us the game. Then, the rest - we made mistakes, Valencia made mistakes, we made big shots, Valencia made big shots, but they were cold-headed in the last 3 minutes and we didn't have the physical and the mental energy to respond."

Players

TOBEY, MIKE
Valencia Basket
"We are fighting for playoffs, so every game is a final for us. We know Bayern is a great team and that is what they do. We had them down big in the first half, but they came back and fought the entire game and won a lot of games like that. I think it shows about our guys finishing the game like we did. The dream continues!"
DUBLJEVIC, BOJAN
Valencia Basket
"I think we did a great job as a team. This victory was really important but still, it is not over. We want to fight for the playoffs and want to fight against everybody, like today. I think we proved that we can fight until the end with everybody."
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