Valencia Basket battled hard—together with a Roig Arena that offered a magnificent atmosphere—to adapt to the approach of a very tough opponent who delivered a playoff-level defensive intensity. The team overcame everything to claim a valuable victory against the hottest team in the competition, Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade, by 76–73.

The frantic first quarter gave no hint of what was to follow. In that opening stretch, Valencia Basket absorbed the Serbian team’s three-point accuracy to stay close on the scoreboard. With a moment of offensive inspiration from Brancou, the Taronja side grew stronger through their defense, stopping the visitors’ attack and recovering balls that turned into transition baskets, gradually building a lead. Though Nwora worked hard to cut into it, he ran into a Montero who matched him offensively, sending the game into halftime with Valencia Basket ahead.

After the break, the Serbian team’s defense abruptly halted Valencia’s offense, allowing them to retake the lead with a 3–14 run. But Valencia Basket found a way to raise their defensive level, at least responding from the backcourt so that neither team managed to score in the final stretch of the third quarter and the start of the fourth. The Taronja regained the lead after hitting a couple of three-pointers, but it was a low-post move by Taylor that set the victory in motion. The game was ultimately decided in an error-filled finish on both sides, where Valencia Basket managed to protect its advantage.

Post-game quotes: Pedro Martínez

“I think the defense from both teams was key. Their defense pushed us back completely, took us out of our rhythm with their switching defense, which we attacked poorly more often than well. Sometimes we did it well too—it wasn’t always a disaster, because we managed to get some easy shots and also grabbed a few offensive rebounds thanks to that switching defense. But yes, it did take us out of rhythm.

In the end, the second half was really about grinding it out. We were better on defense, and in the last four or five minutes of this kind of tight game, the players’ personality shows—almost outside of the system—making winning plays, winning defensive actions. And today, things went our way. Last week they didn’t, and we were more or less the same team, so… things just go how they go.

We’re very happy with the win, but it’s balanced out by how sad we were last week. We were frustrated in Paris, but it’s not like we were slitting our wrists either.”