The hosts bettered their previous scoring record of 109 points
Valencia demolishes Turk Telekom, 116-78, in record effort
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Valencia Basket bounced back in style from its two last defeats and rolled over visiting Turk Telekom Ankara, 116-78, at La Fontenta on Tuesday night. The hosts trailed 4-8 early in the first period, but after the first triple went in, Valencia displayed an unstoppable offensive machinery that totally obliterated its opponent. With this victory, the home team improved to 12-2 to remain atop Group B, while Turk Telekom saw its four-game winning streak come to an end and slipped to 8-6.
Xabi Lopez-Arostegui led six Valencia scorers in double digits with 20 points and also added 6 boards and 5 assists. Brancou Badio, Jaime Pradilla, Chris Jones and Semi Ojeleye followed with 12 points apiece, while Nate Sestina poured in 10 against his former club. Sergio De Larrea stood close to a double-double with 9 points and a career-high 9 assists for a PIR of 21, also a career-high. Berkan Durmaz paced Turk Telekom with 16 points and 6 boards, Yoan Makoundou also scored 16, while Anthony Brown contributed 14 points in the losing effort.
Durmaz became the main offensive weapon for Turk Telekom in the early going, scoring 6 of the visitors’ first 10. Valencia needed some time to adjust, especially from the outside, but when the rotations started, the hosts seemed much more comfortable. Ojeleye was the first one to hit from downtown and Lopez-Arostegui followed with another of his own to tie it at 10-10. The latter scored two more baskets and later fed Pradilla for a triple to boost a 12-0 run that made it 22-12 after 7 minutes. Turk Telekom didn’t panic, though, and used its two first triples of the game to reach the end of the first period trailing 26-21, after Speedy Smith beat the buzzer from downtown.
Sestina and Jones avoided further problems with timely triples early in the second quarter, as Pradilla restored a double-digit lead for the hosts, 38-25 after a nice move inside and a strong dunk off a Chris Jones assist. The run didn’t stop there, as Jones scored on the fastbreak, and Josep Puerto converted an offensive rebound to cap a 10-0 run and build a 41-25 advantage. Turk Telekom found some energy coming from Melih Tunca, but Lopez-Arostegui quickly aborted the rally with 5 points in a row that recovered a safe margin, 48-32. The visitors’ timeout didn’t work as expected, as the difference grew to 52-34 at halftime.
Brown’s first field goal of the night seemed to give some hope to Turk Telekom, which also found Tunca and Makoundou on offense to reduce the gap to 59-46 right after the game resumed. Jones decided to take over to avoid further problems and nailed a three and a short jumper to cool it down, 67-51, right before a TV timeout. Lopez-Arostegui dug deeper from the line soon after, and a long three-pointer by De Larrea made it 73-51. The three-point rain didn’t stop here, as Matt Costello and Badio followed with one each. The punishment was paused at 87-58 when the third-quarter buzzer sounded.
Little changed in the last quarter as the hosts didn’t gear down and kept scoring on almost every possession. Ojeleye helped his team to move past the 30-point margin with a circus shot that turned into a three-point play, 90-58, and Brimah got it to 40 points, 100-60, from the line with 7 minutes remaining. With the outcome in no doubt, the last questions to be answered were which records Valencia was going to break. Reuvers scored the 110th point to make it the best scoring night in club history and the final difference (38 points) became the second-biggest in Valencia’s history as well.