The Valencia Basket has managed energy better than TD Systems Baskonia in the third and final match of the quarterfinals of the Endesa League, which began at 10 p.m. with the start of the new ‘off-peak’ for energy consumption and in Nikola Kalinic he dominated the entire game and ended up beating an opponent, the reigning champion, who with a much shorter rotation arrived very tired at the end and paid for it (78-73).
Started the Valencia more intense than the first two games (not very difficult especially if the comparison was with the second) and that energy combined with the closing of the defensive rebound and the good work of the Serbian Kalinic Y Mike Tobey in the Basque ring they gave him the initiative in the sensations and the scoreboard.
The Baskonia he had to take refuge in the triples of Achille polonara not to disengage and, although it was difficult for him to do so, the Italian’s points and the push of those who came off the bench, especially from Goran dragic, allowed him to narrow the score.
But Bojan dubljevic Y Louis Labeyrie gave continuity to the Valencian superiority under the basket and the local advantage ended up going to ten points, which forced Dusko Ivanovic to ask for a time-out when he could not find a way to maintain some fluidity in the scoring (34-24, m.15).
The Montenegrin coach further reinforced the physical profile of his team by bringing together Tonye jekiri, Polonara Y Alec Peters but a spike of inspiration from Joan Tailor allowed the Valencia reach the break with their advantage almost intact (43-34, m.20).
The clash was resumed with an intense exchange of baskets in which the Baskonia took the initiative but Valencia, led wisely by Sam van rossom, He knew how to answer and leave the rival effort to nothing.
But a triple of Peters On the horn of the change to the last quarter he gave air to the Basque team (59-53, m.30). The psychological blow left doubts in the Valencia that lost the step in the beginning of the last quarter and chained several losses that finished narrowing the marker of face to the end.
Wear, however, took its toll on Henry (who played 31 of the first 34 minutes) and his shooting errors allowed Valencia to regain some weight on the mattress despite attempts by Peters to avoid it.
Despite having the initiative on their side (73-65, m.37), Valencia could not prevent him from entering Polonara Y Henry put the Baskonia in a position to win (75-73), but Giedraitis missed the triple, the American point guard continued without being able to direct clearly and a final basket of Kalinic ended up tilting from the local side a clash in which the Serbian was fired at the shout of MVP. Valencia Basket will be the rival of Real Madrid in the semifinals.
Data sheet
78.- Valencia Basket (23 + 20 + 16 + 19): Van Rossom (9), Sastre (6), Kalinic (18), Williams (2), Tobey (13) -five starters- Prepelic (5), Labeyrie (12), Dubljevic (9), Hermannsson (2) and Vives (2).
73.- TD Systems Baskonia (19 + 15 + 19 + 20): Henry (9), Giedraitis (10), Sedekerkis (4), Polonara (15), Jekiri (4) -five owner- Massenat (-), Colom (-), Fall (3), Dragic (16) and Peters (12).
Referees: Pérez, Peruga and Sánchez Sixto. Without eliminated.
Incidents: first match of the quarterfinals of the Endesa League played in a pavilion of the Fuente de San Luis with a capacity reduced to 1,000 spectators due to the restrictions due to COVID 19 that was completed. Before the start of the clash, a minute of silence was observed in memory of Jorge Bauset, a former councilor of the club and one of its founding members.