First round of the duel for the group leadership on the Unicaja’s court

Valencia Basket visits Malaga for the first time in European competition to play on the Unicaja’s court the first of two consecutive games between the undefeated leaders of group H of the 7DAYS EuroCup (Wednesday 18, 20: 45h, Martín Carpena, Teledeporte delayed 01:00h / live at Eurosport2). Coach Pedro Martinez will have his 12 professional players available after Pierre Oriola has returned to practice after missing the Endesa League game vs. Movistar Estudiantes due to the flu, although the participation of the Catalan pivot in the match is questionable.

 

The Taronja team defend the best streak in the competition (eight wins in a row) against an opponent who holds four consecutive wins at home in the 7DAYS EuroCup. Valencia Basket has the memory of the good precedent of this season's victory in the Endesa League in Martin Carpena (83-91 in a game played on 10 December), but the story plays against them as his balance away from Fonteta against Spanish teams in European competitions is quite negative.

 

Pedro Martínez: “Tomorrow’s game can decide a lot”

The Taronja coach has said that he expects "a hard game, as was the first one, I don’t think it will be any different. Surely the game we played recently will have been analyzed by the two teams. Unicaja is a great team, we know we can lose, we know we can be eliminated, it is not a surprise for us nothing that can happen. What we do not want to take anything for granted. We now have two straight games against the other team in the group that has two victories and what will happen in these two next games will be decisive for the final classification. First to qualify and surely for the final position we will have. Obviously the team that loses tomorrow will not be eliminated, it will not even be sure that it can not be first but it can decide a lot and make tomorrow's result very important"

 

Rosters

UNICAJA

Nº

Name

Born

Position

Height

2

Viny Okouo

Congo

C

2.14

8

Kyle Fogg

USA

PG

1.90

9

Alberto Díaz

Spain

PG

1.88

11

Dani Díez

Spain

SF

2.01

15

Jamar Smith

USA

SG

1.91

16

Nemanja Nedovic

Serbia

SG

1.91

20

Oliver Lafayette

USA/Croatia

PG

1.88

21

Adam Waczynski

Poland

SF

1.99

23

Jeff Brooks

USA/Italia

PF

2.03

43

Carlos Suárez

Spain

PF

2.03

44

Dejan Musli

Serbia

C

2.13

55

Hamady Ndiaye

Senegal

C

2.13

 

Joan Plaza

 

Coach

 

 

VALENCIA BASKET

Nº

Name

Born

Position

Height

0

Will Thomas

USA/Georgia

PF

2.03

8

Antoine Diot

France

PG/SG

1.93

9

Sam Van Rossom

Belgium

PG

1.88

10

Romain Sato

CAF

SF

1.94

14

Bojan Dubljevic

Montenegro

C

2.05

16

Guillem Vives

Spain

PG

1.92

17

Rafa Martínez

Spain

SG

1.90

18

Pierre Oriola

Spain

PF

2.06

19

Fernando San Emeterio

Spain

SF

1.99

30

Joan Sastre

Spain

SG

2.00

43

Luke Sikma

USA

PF

2.03

55

Viacheslav Kravtsov

Ukraine

C

2.13

 

Pedro Martínez

 

Coach

 

 

REFEREES: KOROMILAS (Greece), ROMANO (Israel) & FRITZ (Germany)