Valencia “broke out” in the fourth period and cleaned Virtus

With a stunning 15-0 run to start the fourth period, Valencia comfortably defeated Virtus Bologna 79-68 in the 33rd game of the Euroleague and reached its record of 15-18, thus being eliminated, as well as its opponent, which reached at 13-20.

Until then, the match was a real derby, with the lead constantly changing at some points and no one being able to escape the score.

The protagonists for the “bats” were Alexander with 15 and Evans with 14 points. For the Italians, Otzelege stood out with 21 and Zaitech helped him with 10 points.

The match

The peripheral shots of the “bats” brought 8-2 and 10-4 at the beginning of the meeting in Levante with Jones as the star during this period. A 7-0 run by Virtus with offensive versatility brought the upset and +2 for the Italians, and the lead changed several times in the next few minutes, with Miki closing at 17-19 in the first quarter.

A 4-0 run by Virtus at the start of the second period made it 19-23 to the Euro Cup holders, but Valencia’s own 6-0 run made it +2 in a real derby. Mannion’s three-pointer made it 29-32 and a 4-0 run by the Spaniards made it +4. Evans’ 3-pointer made it 38-36 and the half ended 40-38. Valencia had 13/23 two-pointers and 13 rebounds and Virtus 7/7 shots and 14 rebounds.

Valencia held +3 to +4 at the start of the third period, but Virtus’ 5-0 run brought Sergio Scariolo’s side +1. A personal 4-0 run by Pradiya made it 50-47, Virtus answered with a 4-0 run for the +1 and a 4-0 run by the “bats” made it 56-52, with Mickey’s three-pointer making it 58-57 at the end of the quarter.

A stunning 15-0 run at the start of the fourth quarter made it 60-59 to 75-59 for Juan Peñaroja’s men with stars like Webb and Evans doing whatever they wanted on the Italian defence. Virtus went on a 5-0 run and reduced it to -11 and the difference then went up and down from +13 to +15 for the final 79-68 with Ojeleghe’s 4-0.

The quarters: 17-19, 40-38, 58-57, 79-68

The statistics