Valencia Basket starts the Copa del Rey Madrid 2019 facing Barça Lassa in the quarterfinals

Valencia Basket begins its participation in the Copa del Rey Madrid 2019 facing the current champion and current leader of the Endesa League, Barça Lassa (Thursday 14, 21:30 hours, WiZink Center, #Vamos) in the second of the quarterfinal games of this tournament that will decide the champion of the second official trophy of the season from tomorrow to Sunday 17.

 

The taronja team travels to Madrid this afternoon with an expedition in which the 14 players of the squad have traveled, although Antoine Diot still sidelined for tomorrow’s game despite the fact that he is already in the final stretch of recovering from his left hamstring injury. The Valencia Basket captain Rafa Martinez can become in this game the player with more presences in the Copa del Rey with Valencia Basket (10) and tie Victor Luengo as the player with more games as taronja in this tournament (17).

 

It will be the ninth time that the taronja squad faces Barça Lassa in the Copa del Rey, with a favorable balance to the blue and purple team by 5-3, although the most recent precedent ended with Valencian triumph (in the semifinals of the 2017 Cup). In a match in which there are five of the best three-point shooters of the Endesa League and two of the best defenses of the competition, the accuracy of the shot and control the offense of the rival seem like key elements to decide which of the two teams advance to the semifinals. The winner of the match between Iberostar Tenerife and Unicaja will wait on Saturday 16 at 7:00 p.m. in the second round for the winner of this game.

 

Ponsarnau: "Barça Lassa is the hardest rival, we will need to strengthen our virtues"

Valencia Basket coach said in the press conference previous  to the Copa del Rey quarter-finals game vs. Barça Lassa that "the first climactic moment of the season arrives when there is a title directly in play. We come from a bad moment, especially defensively, we know the reason and hopefully that will help us to be as competitive as we can be. We are not yet, but this is a culminating moment and we want to give everything we have. We hope that everything we have invested in these last weeks will help us to be as competitive as possible now. We know what our strengths are and we will try to take advantage of them. We know that we played against the best team we can face in this tournament, but we believe in our trusts and our virtues. To compete against their physical capacity, the first thing is to enhance our virtues. And I think our virtues are good against that physical superiority "

 

Rosters

BARÇA LASSA

Nº

Nombre

Nacimiento

Posición

Alt.

1

Kevin Seraphin

Francia

Pívot

2.06

3

Kevin Pangos

Canadá/Eslovenia

Base

1.85

5

Pau Ribas

España

Escolta

1.94

6

Chris Singleton

EE.UU

Ala-pívot

2.06

8

Adam Hanga

Hungría

Alero

1.99

9

Jaka Blazic

Eslovenia

Alero

1.96

10

Rolands Smits

Letonia

Alero

2.07

13

Thomas Heurtel

Francia

Base

1.89

14

Artem Pustovyi

Ucrania

Pívot

2.18

18

Pierre Oriola

España

Ala-pívot

2.06

24

Kyle Kuric

EE.UU/Eslovaquia

Escolta

1.93

30

Víctor Claver

España

Ala-pívot

2.07

44

Ante Tomic

Croacia

Pívot

2.17

 

Svetislav Pesic

 

Entrenador

 

 

VALENCIA BASKET

Nº

Nombre

Nacimiento

Posición

Alt.

1

Sergi García

España

Base

1.93

6

Alberto Abalde

España

Alero

2.02

7

Louis Labeyrie

Francia

Ala-pívot

2.08

9

Sam Van Rossom

Bélgica

Base

1.88

10

Will Thomas

EE.UU/Georgia

Ala-pívot

2.03

13

Mike Tobey

EE.UU

Pívot

2.13

14

Bojan Dubljevic

Montenegro

Pívot

2.05

16

Guillem Vives

España

Base

1.92

17

Rafa Martínez

España

Escolta

1.90

19

Fernando San Emeterio

España

Alero

1.99

21

Matt Thomas

EE.UU

Escolta

1.96

30

Joan Sastre

España

Escolta

2.00

42

Aaron Doornekamp

Canadá/Holanda

Ala-pívot

2.01

 

Lesión

 

 

 

8

Antoine Diot

Francia

Base

1.93

Jaume Ponsarnau

Entrenador

 

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