First-placed Valencia fights it way past the pesky Towers
Valencia remains perfect with a 78-86 win at Hamburg
Valencia was challenged more than it expected but grabbed another victory, beating Veolia Towers Hamburg 78-86 on the road to remain undefeated in Group B. Valencia laid the foundation for the win with a 2-21 surge in the third quarter to improve to 10-0.
Josep Puerto hit 4 three-pointers in scoring a career-high 17 points to lead the Spanish side while Chris Jones had 12 points and 4 rebounds, Semi Ojeleye scored 12 points and Amida Brimah chipped in 4 rebounds and 4 blocks. Hamburg saw its modest two-game home winning streak snapped to fall to 2-9 at the bottom of the group. Recent addition Johnathan Stove was Hamburg’s leading scorer with 17 points and Kur Kuath added 12 points and 12 rebounds.
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Puerto converted a three-point play and buried a triple for an early 2-8 lead for the visitors. A long ball from Brancou Badio and a Jones score had Valencia up 7-16. Hamburg temporarily got the deficit to 4 points and Benedikt Tuduric had three baskets, but Valencia was ahead 18-27 after 10 minutes.
Jean Montero opened the second quarter with four-point play for the first double-digit lead at 18-31. Triples from Ojeleye and Nate Sestina both had Valencia up by 13 points but Jaizec Lottie netted 5 straight points as Hamburg fought to 39-45. Valencia responded with the next 6 points and led 42-52 at the break.
Hamburg had the better start to the second half and held the number one offense in the competition without a basket for 3 minutes. Kuath had 6 points as the hosts got within just 51-53. Valencia was not impressed and blew the game open with a 2-21 run to finish the third quarter thanks to hitting 5 three-pointers for a 53-74 advantage.
Just like the third quarter, Hamburg was strong out of the gates in the final frame with Jordan Barnett scoring 6 points in a 10-3 spurt to pull within 63-77. After two Valencia scores, Hamburg had 6 more straight points and the deficit was just 69-81 with 4 minutes to go. The hosts continued to make it interesting with a 9-0 run and it was 78-86 with only 51 seconds left. At the other end, Barnett blocked Jean Montero but missed the layup to lose any hope.