By Stefan Djordjevic / sdjordjevic@eurohoops.net
Despite being down by as much as 18 points in the first half (35-17), Valencia Basket managed to recover and eventually snatch a 90-86 road win in Round 33 of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague.
Klemen Prepelic was the sole reason for Valencia keeping hope early on as he dominated the first half (17 points) and finished with a total of 24 points on 5-7 shooting from long range.
The Slovenian sharpshooter was well-aware of this game’s importance: “It was a final for us tonight, it was a big game. They were playing without pressure, we had a lot of it. We proved that we can play under pressure, even though we didn’t play so well against Olympiacos on Wednesday. But today we came back, we showed character when we were down by almost 20 points. I’m proud of the team. Now we have another final to go.”
Nikola Kalinic scored 17 in addition to Derrick Williams’ 15 and Mike Tobey’s 12 points. Williams also stepped up down the stretch with an alley-oop dunk in transition as well as a 2+1 dagger play.
For Alba, Marcus Eriksson had 17 and Simone Fontecchio 16 points.
Valencia (18-15 desperately needed the win here in order to stay alive in the race with Real Madrid (19-14), Zenit Saint Petersburg (18-14) and TD Systems Baskonia (18-15) for the final two playoff spots.
Photo Credit: Turkish Airlines EuroLeague