By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
It wasn’t pretty, but Real Madrid got the 76-73 and remains the only perfect team in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague with a 7-0 record.
Gabriel Deck with 17 points and Facundo Campazzo with 15 points, five assists, and five rebounds, plus two big plays in the closing seconds, decided the outcome for Madrid.
On the other hand, despite a great start, Valencia couldn’t complete the game the right way.
The hosts managed to get the lead in the first half, which ended with the host up by six (49-43) with Brandon Davies scoring 20 points already against the formidable Madrid front line.
However, he only scored 22 in total and things changed in one period. Madrid was leading by the end of the third (63-62) and Valencia‘s advantage was eliminated.
With the game on the line, the hosts tied the score at 72 entering the last minute after a shot by Chris Jones, but they couldn’t do much more.
Campazzo gave Madrid back the lead (74-72), Jones and Davies missed the chance to score and Campazzo again, this time from the free throws line made it a four-point game (76-72) with just eight seconds on the clock.
Semi Ojeleye was fouled with two seconds left, made the first free throw (76-73), and missed the second on purpose, but he entered the key before the ball hit the rim. As a result, Real Madrid got possession and the game was over.
Defending and stopping Davies
As Real Madrid coach Chus Matteo stated, the second-half defense was the key to the win: “I think we did a great job in the second half, we allowed only 24 points and we fixed all the mistakes we made at the beginning, especially against Brandon Davies. In the second half, we were able to stop him. Valencia is a great team, playing amazing, especially at home”
For Matteo, the “Whites” once more proved they have a no-surrender mentality as a unit: “The most important thing for me, is our mentality, the fact that we come back on games we are losing”.
For Valencia coach Alex Mumbru, things were the opposite: “We had a great first half, we made a lot of shots, especially threes, we opened up the floor and got into our rhythm. However, our opponent is Real Madrid, they scored a lot of points on tough shots at the end of their possession, they can do that. It was a very hard game in the end, we missed some key shots and small details are deciding this kind of game”.
Photo credit: EuroLeague