Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana ended its five-game losing skid with a convincing 85-97 victory over Valencia Basket on the road in Group B.
Cedevita snaps losing skid with convincing win at Valencia, 85-97
Jaka Blazic paced six Cedevita scorers in double figures with 24 points while Yogi Farrell collected 15 points, 7 assists and 2 steals. Edo Muric added 15 points, Jacob Pullen 13, Zach Auguste 11 and Melvin Ejim finished with 10 points in Cedevita’s first 7DAYS EuroCup win since Round 2 on October 27. Valencia saw its three-game winning streak come to an end and fell to 4-3. The club was without its head coach Joan Penarroya, who was unavailable due to COVID-19 protocols. Sam Van Rossom scored a team-high 13 points off the bench, Klemen Prepelic netted 12 points and both Xabi Lopez-Arostegui and Martin Hermannsson had 10 points.
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Both teams were slow to start with Muric’s three-pointer for the visitors coming after nearly 2 minutes. Lopez-Arostegui answered at the other end. Blazic came back with two scores and Ferrell and Muric made triples as Cedevita went ahead 10-19. Muric added a third three-pointer as the lead grew to double digits, 12-22. Valencia started getting some stops and knocked down some three-pointers of its own - including 2 from Josep Puerto - to pull within 22-24 after 10 minutes.
The run continued over into the second quarter with Nenad Dimitrijevic’s free throws giving Valencia the lead and Jasiel Rivero making it 27-24. Marko Radovanovic finally got Cedevita on the board from long range after more than 2 minutes. Blazic also sank a three-pointer as the visitors evened the score at 30-30. Louis Labeyrie came off the Valencia bench for 5 points to put the hosts up 39-32. After Ferrell’s triple got the guests within 2, Cedevita missed a couple of chances to tie the game or pull ahead and Labeyrie knocked down a triple for a 42-37 cushion. Valencia led 44-43 at the break.
Hermannsson opened the second half with a three-pointer for Valencia. The hosts committed three straight turnovers with Ejim converting a layup and Blazic throwing down a dunk and draining a triple before Ferrell added a three-pointer in a 0-16 run for a 47-59 advantage. Valencia responded from deep with 2 Van Rossom three-pointers and a Mike Tobey triple to pull within 56-61. Cedevita got the lead out to 9 points, but Prepelic started to finally heat up. He didn’t score for the first 27 minutes and then scored 8 points for Valencia to get within 64-70 after 30 minutes.
Pullen started the final frame with 4 free throws - on a three-pointer and a technical foul - to push the lead to 64-74. Zach Auguste threw down two big dunks and Cedevita led 69-78. Valencia did not give up and Prepelic drained a triple to pull within 75-80. Ejim and Blazic both had 4 points in a 1-11 surge to put the game away 78-93 with under 2 minutes to play. Blazic added 4 free throws in the closing 72 seconds to give Cedevita a bigger win.