Partizan stops Valencia Basket's good moment
MADRID, 19 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Valencia Basket saw its good moment of victories stopped this Tuesday after falling in La Fonteta by 67-72 against the Serbian Partizan, a rival that almost always dominated it on the scoreboard and prevented its access to the 'Top 6' of the Phase Regular of the Euroleague where Zeljko Obradovic's team does settle.
The 'Taronja' team sought to become stronger at home to overcome a direct rival and place itself in the playoff access zone, but could not against a Balkan team that once gained an advantage in the third quarter, no longer allowed that Alex Mumbrú's men could overcome them.
Valencia Basket faced this start of a double day in the top European competition with a good dynamic of five consecutive wins, three of them in this Regular Phase of the Euroleague, but in front of them they had a Partizan that has accumulated eight, half of them in the continental tournament and that ended up imposing its streak.
The match was even from the beginning, with Obradovic's men leading between poor shooting percentages on both sides, with better aim from the visitors' triple, and taking advantage of the losses of the Valencian team.
The 14-19 score in the first quarter was a true reflection of what was seen in La Fonteta and the second brought the first warning from those from Belgrade who escaped with 19-26. However, there came the local reaction, with an 11-2 run led by Robertson and his three-pointer that put Mumbrú's team ahead in the game for the first time (30-28).
Partizan held this moment well until the break (34-33) and came out of the locker room more successful, especially Zach Leday who scored 12 points and was key to another takeoff, this time decisive, for his team. Valencia Basket got stuck in attack and faced the final ten minutes with distance to go (44-53).
The Serbian team, with good minutes from Dozier, kept the lead within a 'comfortable' range until the brilliant appearance of Chris Jones. A triple and a '2+1' from the American point guard tightened the match again (57-59), but Mumbrú's team was missing that last bit. Obradovic's men got some air with a triple from Punter (61-67) and the sixteenth loss cut off any chance of a 'taronja' comeback.
DATASHEET.
–RESULT: VALENCIA BASKET, 67 – PARTIZÁN, 72 (34-33, at halftime).
–EQUIPMENT.
VALENCIA BASKET: Jones (14), Puerto (9), Claver (3), Inglis (6) and Davies –possible starting five–; Reuvers (-), Pradilla (5), Jovic (3), Toure (4), López-Arostegui (3), Robertson (12) and Hermannsson (-).
PARTISAN: Punter (13), Dozier (9), Smailagic (4), Caboclo (7) and Leday (14) –quinteto inicial–; Jaramaz (-), Nunnally (14), Vukcevic (-), Andjusic (-), Kaminsky (7) and Ponitka (5).
–PARTIALS: 14-19, 20-14, 10-20 and 23-19.
–REFEREES: Rocha, Pastusiak and Lezcano.
–PAVILLION: San Luis Fountain.