Valencia Basket defeats Fenerbahçe Beko Istanbul with a solid team performance (94-79)

Valencia Basket men’s team reunited with their fans at the Roig Arena in the EuroLeague with a victory over Fenerbahçe Beko Istanbul, 94–79, in a game they led from start to finish. They built a strong early advantage and showed mental toughness to keep the reigning champions’ defensive efforts from threatening their control or the outcome.

Pedro Martínez’s men came out firing from long range and capitalized on a hot streak from Darius Thompson to string together an 11–0 run that helped establish a comfortable lead. Seven straight points from Brancou later pushed the margin past twenty. Fenerbahçe Beko Istanbul tightened up defensively late in the first half to slow Valencia’s offensive rhythm and cut into the lead.

The Turkish side continued to rely on defense to stay in the game, but Valencia Basket managed to weather that stretch thanks to the spark provided by Jean Montero, who reignited the offense and rebuilt the cushion. In the final quarter, Fenerbahçe leaned on Biberovic’s three-pointers and defensive pressure to mount one last push, but the taronja squad remained composed and closed out a game they had controlled from the opening tip.

Post-game quotes: Pedro Martínez

“Defense and offense, as always, are communicating vessels. Everything is connected. We defended well — we should be happy with our defensive intensity, with how we pressured the ball. The things we set out to do in terms of effort and aggressiveness worked very well. But offense also plays its part. I think it’s a matter of balance between the two, and there’s also a kind of balance between when you’re very accurate on offense — when things are going your way offensively — you also defend better, right? You’re more energized, the other team has to inbound the ball more often, and that forces them into a different rhythm. So today everything went along those lines. They were very inaccurate in the first half, as was shown in the second half when that wasn’t the case anymore. And we maintained good intensity, good accuracy, good shooting percentages — and that gave us a lot of confidence.”