Condemned by the second quarter on the court of La Laguna Tenerife (89–71)

Valencia Basket fell in their visit to La Laguna Tenerife’s court by 89–71 in a game where they were able to respond for most of the first quarter to the home side’s outside shooting accuracy with points in the paint. However, our team was overwhelmed by the home team’s three-point accuracy between the end of the first quarter and the beginning of the second (the Tenerife side made eleven shots from beyond the arc in the first fourteen minutes), leading to a 24–2 run that left Valencia trailing by twenty at halftime.

The Valencia team started well after the break and produced a run that brought them within twelve points, but the home side controlled the pace of the game and attacked patiently, comfortable with their lead on the scoreboard. This prevented Valencia Basket from finding their rhythm or cutting the deficit to fewer than twelve points. In fact, with more three-pointers, the hosts set a new maximum lead shortly before the end of the game, not allowing the taronja team to close the gap.

Post-game quotes: Pedro Martínez

“They outplayed us in every aspect. And I don’t want to take anything away from La Laguna Tenerife by saying that all the responsibility was ours. They simply played much better and clearly outperformed us.

The team that is playing with more fluidity, the one for whom things are going well, has an extra bit of energy. And that extra energy shows up in the rebounds, in loose balls, in communication — a little bit in everything. You start to drop a bit mentally and the other team rises up, and the gap becomes much bigger.

From the way I saw us warming up, and the way Tenerife did, I had a bad feeling before the game started that we weren’t very focused. And this is not a criticism of the players — it’s mainly my responsibility. I think we didn’t prepare the game well, and I’m very critical, but mainly with myself”