Valencia Basket overcame injuries and absences to rally past Promitheas Patras 68-71 at Dimitris Tofalos Arena on Wednesday. Valencia improved to 7-3 in Group A while Promitheas lost its fourth in a row and dropped to 2-7.
Tobey, Puerto lead Valencia to epic win, 68-71
Mike Tobey led the winners with a EuroCup career-high 22 points. Neno Dimitrijevic added 10 for Valencia. Dimitris Agravanis paced Promitheas with 22 points, Kendrick Ray added 15 and Trevis Simpson had 13 in his debut for the hosts. Promitheas led 68-61 lead with over 3 minutes left but Josep Puerto and Tobey combined for all the points in a 0-10 final run that won it.
Related Videos
Jerai Grant got Promitheas going with a tip-in that Sam Van Rossom bettered with a bomb from downtown. Tobey added a turnaround jumper for a 2-5 Valencia lead. Dimitris Agravanis hit a jump hook and Ray scored in penetration to give the hosts a 6-5 edge. Tobey and Dimitrijevic buried consecutive jumpers, but Agravanis scored in the low post and Simpson buried a mid-range shot for a 10-9 score. Martin Hermansson nailed a jumper off the dribble and Dimitrijevic gave Valencia a 10-13 lead. Nikolaos Rogkavopoulos stepped up with a backdoor layup and Simpson ignited the crowd with a dunk, but Millan Jimenez gave Valencia a 14-15 lead after 10 minutes.
Jimenez and a red-hot Simpson traded three-pointers early in the second quarter. Dimitrijevic followed a driving layup with a floater for a 17-22 Valencia cusion. Ray and Agravanis answered with back-to-back layups, but Tobey took over with a three-point play and a power layup and Puerto followed that with a fastbreak basket to boost the guests' lead to 23-29. Grant stepped up with an alley-oop slam, Ray buried a mid-range shot and Agravanis fired in a triple but Louis Labeyrie and Hermannsson kept Valencia in charge, 30-36. Mihajlo Andric banked in a floater and Ray buried a step-back triple to fix the halftime score at 34-35.
Labeyrie buried a triple right after the break and Dimitrijevic added a driving basket, but Ray singlehandedly kept Promitheas close at 40-41. Abdul Gaddy followed a driving layup with a jumper, igniting a 9-0 run highlighted by Grant's dunk which Agravanis capped with a three-point play to give Promitheas a 49-43 lead. Tobey rescued Valencia with an alley-oop slam, but Agravanis scored again and Dario Hunt added a three-point play to boost the lead to 54-45. Tobey kept pushing the visitors and got help from Hermannsson and Jimenez to give Valencia hope, 57-52, after 30 minutes.
Van Rossom buried a six-meter jumper early in the fourth quarter and Labeyrie dunked to make it a one-point game. Simpson downed a three-pointer, but Van Rossom answered from downtown and fed Tobey for an alley-oop dunk that completed Valencia's comeback, 60-61, with 6 minutes left. Agravanis stepped up for the hosts and Simpson sank a corner triple, giving Promitheas fresh air at 65-61. Puerto swished a three-pointer and Tobey followed a put-back dunk with a backdoor layup that tied it, 68-68, with 1:31 to go. Puerto split free throws and drew a foul again with 19.6 seconds remaining. He made both attempts and Ray missed from downtown at the buzzer.