By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Real Madrid remained undefeated in Spain by downing Valencia on the road and improving to 8-0.
Valencia – Real Madrid 78 – 86
Real Madrid hit 17-33 triples and got some payback from Valencia for the EuroLeague loss at home by taking the win in “La Fonteta”. After a quite hot start by Real, Valencia was trailing by 25 at halftime until making a big comeback attempt thanks to Louis Labeyrie (26 points). Real saw its big lead getting cut to six in the mid of the fourth period but that was the closest their opponents got.
Jaycee Carroll led Real with 17 points, 12 of them in the first period. Former Valencia player Alberto Abalde had 15 points and Trey Thompkins scored 15 as well.
Barcelona – Iberostar Tenerife 81 – 74
Alex Abrines hit shots from the perimeter (16 points on 4-5 3-pointers), Nick Calathes was all over the place (14 points, five rebounds, five assists) and Barcelona halted the undefeated streak of Iberostar Tenerife with a home win.
Giorgi Shermadini was the top performer of Tenerife with 19 points plus six rebounds.
Gran Canaria – Baskonia 71 – 75
Baskonia survived a tough battle against Gran Canaria on the road. Pierria Henry was the one to score the go-ahead free-throws for the winning squad with 32 seconds to play and then Zoran Dragic and Luca Vildoza preserved their team’s lead with points from the charity stripe as well.
Dragic finished with a season-high 17 points while Achille Polonara had 15 points and nine rebounds. Rokas Giedraitis scored 14 points and got six boards.
Andrew Albicy (19 points, six assists, seven turnovers) and Matt Costello (19 points) were the top scorers of Gran Canaria.
Real Betis – Gipuzkoa 74-62
James Feldeine helped Betis bounce back from a four-game losing streak against Gipuzkoa, leading his team to victory with 25 points, hitting six three-pointers in the first half.
Johnny Dee was the only player in double digits for the visitors and finished the game with 22 points.
Manresa – Bilbao 94-78
Jonathan Tabu scored a game-high of 23 points in Manresa’s big victory over Bilbao and Eulis Baez tapped 10 points along with six assists and four rebounds.
Ondrej Balvin paced Bilbao with a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds as Jaylon Brown, Alex Reyes and Ludvig Hakansson tapped 13 points each.
Unicaja Malaga – Monbus Obradoiro 82-76
Dario Brizuela led the way for the victors with 21 points while Francis Alonso followed with 17 and Azel Bouteille with 11 points.
For Obradoiro, Kassius Robertson banked 24 and Layrinas Birutis 23 points. The latter also grabbed ten rebounds.
Joventut Badalona – Estudiantes 97 – 70
Five players scored in double figures for Badalona in an impressive display against Estudiantes. Ante Tomic (17 points, eight rebounds), Vladimir Brondziasky (17 points) and Simon Brigander (14 points) were the top contributors from Joventut’s offense.
Aleksa Avramovic had 18 points and Alessandro Gentile 15 for Estudiantes.