Valencia Basket, driven by the points of Jordan Loyd and Mike Tobey and with more continuity in their game, overwhelmed a weak Herbalife Gran Canaria with a victory that classified the Endesa League for the semifinals and that allowed the historic classification of San Pablo Burgos, while causing a no less unexpected elimination of Real Madrid.
Real Madrid will not be able to fight to reissue the League title of the last two seasons after failing to get one of the top two positions in group B and failing to reach the semifinals, which have not been missing for twelve years, since 2008. In the semifinals, Valencia will meet Baskonia on Sunday, while Barça will face the surprising San Pablo Burgos.
The meeting between Valencia and Gran Canaria started off rough. On the one hand, due to the announcement by Herbalife Gran Canaria to Fotis Katsikaris that he will not continue the next campaign that he communicated to him after the defeat against Casademont Zaragoza and, on the other, due to the last minute drop in the Valencia of Alberto Abalde, his best exterior so far in the final phase.
81
Herbalife Gran Canaria
Cook (8), Harper (15), Beirán (10), Shurna (6), Costello (5) -five starter- Okoye (6), Lecomte (5), Bourousis (5), Pauli (10) and Burjanadze ( eleven).
97
Valencia Basket
Van Rossom (8), Loyd (26), San Emeterio (11), Doornekamp (-), Tobey (18) -five start- Colom (13), Marinkovic (10), Labeyrie (2), Dubljevic (4) and Tailor (5).
- PARTIALS:
23-29, 21-21, 12-26 and 25-20.
- arbitrators:
Hierrezuelo, Conde and Manuel. Without eliminated.
- INCIDENCES:
Match corresponding to the last day of the group stage of the final phase of the Endesa League played in the De la Fuente de San Luis pavilion behind closed doors.
But the Valencian team started willing not to miss Galician much. Well directed by Van Rossom and with Jordan Loyd and Fernando San Emeterio very incisive in penetrations, he punished the lack of Canarian defensive toughness (11-21, m.6).
Omar Cook had to multiply his creation so that his team did not go down but when Tobey also began to punish near the rim, the helm was already Valencia. With the team running, Jaume Ponsarnau started a rotation that in previous games had weighed on him and that once again allowed his rival to get into the clash (23-29, m.10).
Lecomte agilely directed the island team, which opened the Valencian defense from the corners. Given the panorama, the coach of the Valencian team quickly recovered Van Rossom to prevent the team from falling.
The inertia changed and although the lack of freshness of the Belgian made the shock equal to the maximum (32-33, m.15), his experience also allowed him to reopen the gap before sitting down. That is why, despite Bourousis waking up, the points of a more toned Quino Colom allowed Valencia to reach the break ahead (44-51, m.20).
Ponsarnau took advantage of that momentum to give continuity to the Andorran base in the restart and he knew how to feed the plugged-in Tobey and Loyd to put a Gran Canaria without reaction capacity back on the ropes. Several triples in a row opened the gap (49-68, m.25).
Katsikaris’ team was KO and San Emeterio took the lead to 26 points, which made the possibility of a comeback almost a miracle.
Oriol Paulí tried and in the absence of five minutes the advantage came to stay in twelve but a triple by Marinkovic and another by Sastre cooled Canary expectations and gave Valencia a placid classification.
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