Valencia (Spain), March 5. Valencia Basket surprised Lenovo Tenerife (77-72) this Sunday in a match in which, guided by Jonah Radebaugh, they understood that only the defense can be solid and beat a rival that they failed to recover even the good debut from Argentinian Leandro Bolmaro.
Injured after his poor image on the field of Baskonia in the Euroleague, Valencia started more intense than a Tenerife who arrived rested after two weeks without playing. It took just two minutes for Txus Vidorreta to call a timeout to wake up his team and another thirty seconds to put Marcelinho Huertas on. It was the connection between the playmaker and Giorgi Shermadini that connected the visitors and leveled the clash.
The hole the Brazilian created in the middle led to Valencia trying to protect that area at the cost of stripping the corners. When he settled down and protected them again, Jaime Fernández seemed to take that path again. The doubts of the locals and their supporters became clearer and Tenerife widened the gap, scoring easily with Fran Guerra as an unexpected generator (25-36, m.14).
The effort of the premises was not rewarded in part by their lack of confidence and Tenerife threatened to break the shock before the break by increasing their lead to fifteen points. Valencia avoided it with greater defensive cohesion with the presence of Jonah Radebaugh and Víctor Claver (35-44, m.20).
The improvement behind the locals consolidated after the break and the surprised Tenerife saw how from 25-40 at minute 16 they went to 55-49 at minute 30, with Webb III and Radebaugh, but also Jasiel Rivero , stirring Valencia.
Neither the presence of Shermadini nor that of Huertas managed to unlock the team of Txus Vidorreta, who, seeing that nothing was working for him, made his debut for the Argentinian Bolmaro.
The presence of the foreigner, freshly arrived from the NBA, revitalized the visitors. A triple and a corner penetration of his own tightened the score, but Valencia didn’t take off their work suit and maintained their dominance.
A couple of disagreements with the referees over two strangers didn’t get him out of the game, but Giorgi Shermadini lost his temper, who was sent off for a technical after being called the fifth foul.
The locals took the opportunity to fatten their mattress and entered with a six-point lead in the last three minutes. They needed them, but they took advantage of the fact that in Tenerife only Bolmaro seemed to believe in a victory that remained at La Fonteta.
– Data sheet:
77 – Valencia Basket (19 + 16 + 22 + 20): Jones (7), Radebaugh (14), Puerto (7), Webb III (14), Dubljevic (6) – five starters – Claver (-), Prepelic ( -), Pradilla (7), López-Arostegui (-), Evans (5) and Rivero (17).
72 – Lenovo Tenerife (24+20+8+20): Fitipaldo (-), Fernandez (13), Cook (2), Doornekamp (6), Shermadini (6) – five holders – Rodriguez (5), Huertas (8 ). ), Salin (-), Abromaitis (10), Bolmaro (9) and War (13).
Referees: Peruga, Cortés and Sánchez-Mohedas. They eliminated Shermadini (m.36) due to personal fouls.
Incidents: match corresponding to the twenty-first day of the Endesa League played in the Fuente de San Luis pavilion in front of 5,712 spectators. EFE
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