By Eurooops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Cedevita Olimpija made an 11-0 run down the stretch and defeated Valencia 82 – 76 for a 2-0 sweep over the Taronja in the EuroCup regular season. The Slovenian side captured its seventh straight win and improved to 10 – 7 and third place in Group B.
While the battle for second place is open between these two teams, Gran Canaria took advantage of this result to mathematically clinch the top spot.
Zoran Dragic scored a game-high 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for Cedevita while draining the dagger with a 3-pointer for the 79 – 71 with 1:29 to play. His team trailed 68 – 71 halfway through the fourth period but went on to drop 11 unanswered points to get a three-possession lead in crunch time.
Valencia had come back from down 16 early when their leading scorer Martin Hermannsson (16 points, six assists) hit the 3-pointer to put his team up by three in the fourth quarter. Their own turnaround was left undone, however, since they didn’t respond to Cedevita’s late streak.
Jaka Blazic contributed 13 points and five rebounds to Cedevita’s victory while Edo Muric and Jacob Pullen scored 11 apiece and Yogi Ferrell finished with 10 points plus five assists.
Mike Tobey had 14 points plus 10 rebounds for Valencia. Xabi Lopez-Arostegui posted 13 points plus six rebounds and Jasiel Rivero produced 10 points plus five boards.
In one of the most important games of Round 17, Reyer Venezia secured a spot in the Top 16 by routing already-eliminated Promitheas Patras 81 – 57. Stefano Tonut led the winning side with 16 points.
JL Bourg en Bresse pulled off a major upset over Buducnost in Podgorica with a 75 – 73 victory. Jalen Jones had 19 points for the winning side that had a 3 – 25 run over the last minutes of the third period and the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Samet Geyik scored a career-high 32 points and Alex Perez hit the game-winner with six seconds to play as Turk Telekom beat Lietkabelis 77 – 75 on the road. In Hamburg, Jaylon Brown had 22 points and led the local Towers to a 90 – 69 win over Trento.
Standings with one game left in the regular season:
Group A
Joventut Badalona 12 – 4
Partizan Belgrade 11 – 4
Boulogne Metropolitans 10 – 5
Morabanc Andorra 9 – 6
Lietkabelis Panevezys 8 – 6
Turk telekom 7 – 8
Hamburg Towers 6 – 8
Slask Wroclaw 3 – 12
Dolomiti Energia Trento 1 – 14
Group B
Gran Canaria 12 – 5
Valencia 11 – 6
Cedevita Olimpija 10 – 7
Virtus Bologna 10 – 7
Buducnost 9 – 8
Bursaspor 8 – 9
Reyer Venezia 8 – 9
Ratiopharm Ulm 7 – 10
JL Bourg en Bresse 6 – 11
Promitheas Patras 4 – 13