By Eurohoops / info@eurohoops.net
The last game of EuroLeague’s 12th round turned out to be the most intense and closest one.
After 40 minutes of battle, Valencia Basket came out victorious.
The Spanish side defeated Crvena Zvezda 76-73 to improve to a 7-5 record, while the red-and-white team from Belgrade now stands at 8-4.
Brancou Badio was Valencia Basket’s top scorer, finishing the game with 16 points.
Codi Miller-McIntyre’s great performance (23 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists) wasn’t enough for Obradovic’s team.
After a very offence-oriented first half (49-39), it looked like the game would continue in the same direction in the second half.
But after the break, the game turned into a battle in which every point was a real fight.
Crvena Zvezda allowed only 11 points in the third quarter, making the game extremely tight and forcing everything to be decided in the fourth.
After an amazing play by Kam Taylor (75–71) with just 1:03 remaining, it seemed Valencia Basket had a slight edge, given how hard it was to score and how sloppy the game had become.
But the Serbian team never gave up. With less than five seconds to play, the score was 75–73 with possession for the guests, but they couldn’t inbound the ball and lost the game, as Codi Miller-McIntyre’s “Hail Mary” attempt to tie it at the buzzer did not go in after Matt Costello scored one of his two free throws.