The duo dominated against Crvena Zvezda to get the Spanish side back on track.
Brandon Davies and Semi Ojeleye ended Valencia’s skid
Valencia Basket was able to breathe a huge sigh of relief after an 85-81 home win over Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade ended the Spanish team’s losing streak and improved its regular season record to 6-6. In contrast, the visitors dropped to 4-8 after missing a chance to turn the game on its head and complete a late comeback in dramatic finish.
Valencia looked in for some plain sailing after romping away to a 56-40 lead at halftime, having made 11 of 17 shots from two-point territory and 8 of 16 from three-point range. However, the home team’s offense came to a stuttering halt in the third quarter and Zvezda slashed the deficit to 62-61, threatening to turn the tide.
Big man Brandon Davies and forward Semi Ojeleye, who led the first-half onslaught, turned out to be instrumental in Valencia’s victory. Davies who finished on a game-high 21 points, sank a pair of free throws in the dying seconds to put the game beyond Zvezda’s reach and Ojeleye racked up 17 points to go with 6 rebounds.
Valencia appeared to have the win in its grasp when it took an 81-74 lead in the closing stages, but a 7-0 run by Zvezda threw it wide open. Jared Harper then kept Valencia in the driving seat with a layup before Davies held his nerve from the foul line.
“The first half was ours as we played good defense and shared the ball, but in the second half Zvezda created a lot of problems for us,” Valencia head coach Alex Mumbru told the post-game press conference.
“We should have killed off the game earlier but we managed to come out on top in the face of adversity. The La Fonteta crowd gave us a lift and we were finally able to celebrate a EuroLeague win after 5 defeats," he added.
Counterpart Ioannis Sfairopoulos conceded that a poor first half cost Zvezda dearly.
“It was a close game in the end and it was decided by a few details,” he said. “The first half belonged to Valencia but we came back in the second. We had our chances in the end but we missed some open shots.
“Our approach was completely different in the third quarter but my concern is why we didn’t have it throughout the 40 minutes. It’s something we have to discuss in order to be more consistent.”