Kyle Guy added without fail 12 of Penya’s first 16 points and finished with 27
Dubljevic took the match to extra time with a basket in the absence of six tenths
A surprising Jared Harper led his team this Sunday in their first official match in Europe and with Valencia Basketa to a hard-fought victory against a resilient Joventut who came close to winning twice but, as had happened in regulation time, was unable to stop the elusive American point guard in overtime.
DATA SHEET
Endesa League
VAL
JOV
LINEUPS
Valencia Basketball
Jones (16), Prepelic (3), Claver (3), Pradilla (5), Dubljevic (8) -five starters- Harper (24), Puerto (7), López-Arostegui (8), Van Rossom (5) , Radebaugh (5), Alexander (-) and Rivero (17).
Joventut
Vives (15), Guy (27), Kraag (-), Ellenson (9), Tomic (15) -five starters- Busquets (9), Ribas (6), Feliz (2), Birgander (8), Parra ( 6) and Maronka (-).
partial
1 (23-18), 2 (20-19), 3 (24-24), 4 (20-26), overtime (14-10)
referees
Perez Pizarro, Sanchez and Sanchez Benito. They eliminated the visitor Tomic (m.40).
Pavilion
San Luis Fountain before 7,963 spectators
Valencia started more calmly and dominance of the rebound in the two baskets gave it the handle of the crash but the spectacular start of Kyle Guy, who added without fail 12 of Joventut’s first 16 points, allowed Penya to cling to the match. Of course, as soon as the American shooting guard sat down to rest, the locals took advantage of it (23-18, m.10).
Despite certain doubts, debutant Jared Harper led Valencia with three triples and some very fast driving, which also consolidated the dominance of the boards with Kyle Alexander and especially Jasiel Rivero.
It seemed that the meeting could be broken but the locals lacked serenity to take the rent beyond ten points and with the return of Guy, Guillem Vives and Ante Tomic, Joventut turned the score around with a run of 0-13 (33-37, m 16).
A triple by Jaime Pradilla broke the streak and the calm of Sam Van Rossom allowed the locals to get out of the well and reach the break with a small advantage (43-37, m.20).
At the restart and before the good defense of Jonah Radebaugh on Guy, Joventut revolved his game around an inspired Ante Tomic but it was not enough before the scoring awakening of Chris Jones and Josep Puerto (60-47, m.26).
The local advantage came to rise to fifteen points but two triples from the corner of Pep Busquets cooled down Valencia and allowed the visitors to recover options for the last quarter (67-61, m.30).
The clash turned into a duel between the Penya youth squad and Harper with appearances by López-Arostegui for the locals and Pau Ribas for the visitorswho were recovering sensations until a triple by Ellenson tied the game with four minutes to go (79-79, m.36).
Valencia put themselves in the hands of the solvent Jones and Rivero for the end but, unexpectedly, they lost their rigor in defense and Guy reappeared to put La Penya ahead again with two triples.
Joventut came close to winning but Rivero adjusted the score and Bojan Dubljevic after a protested foul by Ante Tomic with six tenths to go tied the game but by missing the second free throw, he could not avoid extra time (87-87, m.40).
Two three-pointers by Guillem Vives gave Joventut the initiative in extra time but Dubljevic and Rivero sustained the locals. Seeing that the clash was going away, Mumbrú, who had ruled out James Webb III in this clash to put Harper in, recovered the American base, who with two free throws and a triple compensated for another Vives basket and gave Valencia a victory which Jones sealed.