By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Valencia‘s first win in the 2022-23 EuroLeague was a mighty one. Thanks to two free throws by Chris Jones with three seconds to play, the Spanish side defeated reigning champion Anadolu Efes 91 – 92 in Istanbul to complete a major upset.
“I honestly don’t know how I feel,” Jones said. He finished with 15 points, eight assists and just one turnover. “Step by step. We are trying to build something. We played well as a team today, we got the stops that we needed. We finished down the stretch and we got the win. It is a team effort. We are trying to figure each other out, build chemistry. It is tough when you are losing and feels like things don’t work, but this win right here will help us a lot.”
Efes had a chance to make a winning shot but committed a turnover when Will Clyburn slipped while moving to get the ball from the inbounds pass. The former Final Four MVP had scored four points in the last minute with the score 84 – 88 and then Rodrigue Beaubois hit a triple to put Efes up 91-90 with 15 seconds remaining.
Valencia captain Bojan Dubljevic led his team overall with 20 points plus five rebounds while Sam Van Rossom added 12 points. “First of all, it was a tough game, we played against maybe the best team in the EuroLeague,” Dubljevic said. “We are very really happy. I think we deserved this victory. We fought together. I am really proud of these boys because we practice really hard for this every day. After tough two games at home, we finally found our way to win. I don’t follow the statistics, I am trying to do the best myself. I am trying to push the team, trying to do what the team needs me to do. I eat really well here in Istanbul, maybe that’s the key to success.”
Vasilije Micic (22 points, eight assists) and Clyburn (18 points) stood out from Efes that suffered its second loss in a row in EuroLeague. Ergin Ataman’s players started the game by taking a 17 – 7 lead in the first period but Valencia reacted to go up 21 – 23 and the match remained closed, for the most part, until the very end. There were several lead changes and it was Efes that went up 73 – 66 early in the fourth quarter.
Valencia reduced that deficit and then went ahead 84 – 85 with two minutes to play before the dramatic finale. “When you come to play here you know it is going to be a tough game,” Valencia coach Alex Mumbru said after celebrating his first EuroLeague win in this position. “It was decided in the last possessions, and both teams could have won the game, and we got the win. If you want to win here you need to shoot with good percentages because it is very difficult to attack. Because Efes is a big team. I think everyone made one step forward tonight, every one of my players scored and it was a good team win.”
When the referees get it right
Anadolu Efes coach Ergin Ataman has been vocal over the years every time he had complaints with the officiating. Now, he admitted that the referees got it right when a made a non-call when Clyburn slipped while moving to get the ball from Micic during the last moments.
“‘I’d like to start from the last part of the game, from the last possessions of the game,” Ataman said. “Maybe we complain too much with the referees about the situations, but I watched now on TV and they were correct. So, we did not lose a game because of some calls by the referees. I talked to the players in the locker room and the reality is that the whole game we played terrible defense. They scored 16 three-point shots, they found many layups with Chris Jones and they deserved to win the game. That’s the reality of the game.”