Albeit in dramatic fashion, the Red Stars defeated Valencia 77-75 in Spain for Game 17 of the EuroLeague and with a 9-8 record still hopes to make the playoffs, leaving the ‘Bats’ at 7-10 and out of reach at this point from the playoffs.
The match was dramatic until the fourth period, where Dusko Ivanovic’s players reached +9 and withstood the pressure of the “bats” in the last minutes.
The protagonists of the Serbs were Petrusev with 25 and Nedovic with 19 points. For the Levantines, Jones stood out with 16, Harper with 11 and Pradia, Radebo and Rivero with 10 points.
The match
Red Star found some solutions at the beginning of the match inside the Spanish basket and maintained a small lead, but a 5-0 run by the “bats” brought them to +3. The Serbs responded with a 4-0 run of their own to make it 7-8 and the lead kept changing hands for the next few minutes. Jones brought in +3 for Valencia, who kept +1 to +3 in that span. Petrusev starred in a 6-0 run by the Serbs for 15-20, with Nedovic maintaining that margin with his own baskets until the end of the first period.
Nedovic brought +6 for Red Star at the start of the second period, and most of the solutions that the Serbs had inside the basket brought them to +2 to +4. A 5-0 run by Valencia made it +1 for the Levantines, but back-to-back three-pointers from Holland made it an 8-0 run and +7 for Dusko Ivanovic’s men. A 6-0 run by Astera cut it to 42-43, but the Serbs’ spurts gave them a 4-0 run and 42-47 at the end of the first half. The “bats” had 16/17 shots and 11 rebounds and the Serbs 11/12 shots and also 11 rebounds.
Dobrich’s 3-pointer made it +6 to start the third period and Lazarević’s +5 for the Adriatic League champions. Valencia responded with a 5-0 run to tie the score, but Asteras responded with a 4-0 run to make it 53-57 and Nedovic kept it +3 until the end of the quarter.
Holland and Nedovic brought +7 for Asteras at the start of the fourth period, but even with too many mistakes on both sides, the Spaniards with a 5-0 run reduced it to 63-65. Nedovic and Petrusev continued their “crescendo” from the perimeter and racket respectively and brought the 63-72 by themselves. Valencia found the solutions and reduced 68-72. Three consecutive missed 3-pointers on either side kept the score level, but Lazarević’s foul shot on Prepelić’s 3-pointer made it 71-72 for Valencia with 30 minutes to go.
Nedovic won a foul and made two shots to make it 71-74 at 24”. Jones with a layup cut it to 73-74 at 11”, but Petrusev with two shots made it 73-76. Jones with a difficult two-pointer cut it to 75-76, Nedovic with 1/2 shots brought it 75-77 and in the last attack of Valencia Harper missed a three-pointer.
The quarters: 19-24, 42-47, 58-61, 75-77
The statistics
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