Virtus overthrows the king of the Eurocup and will play the final

Peñarroya clenched his teeth with 2:39 remaining and the duel was almost lost. His team had not played a good game on the worst possible day. It was an early final against the super favorite of the competition. La Fonteta full and a final just around the corner that was the direct passport to the Euroleague. But it was not the day. Virtus got everything in the first two quarters. Valencia conceded 50 points in the first two acts with a Shengelia out of competition. To come back from this team in the second half it was necessary to do it almost perfectly. And Valencia didn’t even come close to it with several players far from their best level.

Valencia slipped in the penultimate corner and now the Euroleague will depend on what the organization decides with the wild cards if it finally excludes the Russian teams in next year’s edition. The taronja fire arrived until the last quarter, when it became three, after rowing and rowing during the second part. But there his strength ran out and Virtus sentenced the duel before an enraged Bolognese crowd that traveled to Valencia. ‘Divertiamoci’ said his banner. Scariolo saw her. No sooner said than done. They will play the final against the Turkish Bursaspor.

Valencia was left short by López-Arostegui’s great game (16 points and 6 rebounds) and Rivero’s good work under the hoops (17 points). Van Rossom, full of courage although physically inferior to the Italian point guards, was also up to the task.a. But key men like Dubljevic or Tobey were always very out of the game. In Scariolo’s box, Shengelia destroyed the taronjas in the first half and the everlasting Teodosic and Belinelli (14 points) rescued their team with the hint of a comeback for Valencia.

From the initial jump, the vibrations were not those of another game. A final at stake and perhaps a place in the next Euroleague on the table. The Virtus quintet scares. And even more so if it starts like the Italian team did at La Fonteta. With Weems and Hackett scoring. Peñarroya started with his most defensive eleven and immediately gave him the first returns. With López-Arostegui cutting the Italian defense in half and running with Tobey, Valencia began to take off (16-11, min. 7). It was his biggest lead in the entire match. Scariolo did not like how things were going and he suddenly put Belinelli and Shengelia. It is what it has to have a roster made at the stroke of a checkbook. And it worked for him. The Georgian put it all. Even a shot out of time that after reviewing it they gave it as good. Likewise, the former Raptors nailed it with additional and with foreshortening. The Italian success took the taronjas out of the game, just like in the Cup against Murcia. In three minutes the partial was 3-19which launched Virtus in the electronic (19-27).

The fire with which La Fonteta started the match was extinguished. Shengelia, trained in the lower categories of Valencia, could with everyone. Weems and Teodosic took advantage of the fact that Valencia was closing, to strike from outside. A triple from the Serbian after three good defensive actions unhinged the locals. Peñarroya was outraged with the referees who allowed the excessive physical play of those of Scariolo. A basket under the rim by Sampson put the maximum so far (34-48, min. 19). Claver and Van Rossom filed from free kick but Shengelia, with a basket after a magic reverse, on the buzzer, made it 38-50, at halftime.

Valencia was on the ropes. But right there is where he carved out the nickname of the ‘team that never gives up’. The taronjas began to cover the routes towards the hoop of the Virtus and Rivero danced in the area. Scoring and charging Jaiteh with fouls. The faces of the Italians were no longer to be at Eurodisney, Valencia had reached the semifinal. On time? A 2+1 by Van Rossom full of claw put Valencia within five points (51-56), the closest they had been for a long time. Teodosic insisted on waging war on his own and for the first time in the entire match, La Fonteta thought that the Bolognese constellation of stars could be defeated. But a couple of losses by Dimitrijevic cut the pace of the comeback and Bellinelli and Hervey stretched the lead again. However, a grown López Arostegui and a free kick from Dubi left it at 57-62, with a fourth to play.

Scariolo did his job in the intermission and although he won a technique, the referees returned to being those of the first part. A triple by Labeyrie and a mate by Tobey finally put Peñarroya’s men within range (63-66, min. 31). But just then, fortune fell in the face of the Virtus again. A triple that tied Van Rossom and a 2+1 from Sampson when Tobey had herded it hurt Taronja’s morale again. Another loss by Hermannsson with a subsequent basket by Cordinier made it 63-76, which was already another insurmountable mountain on Valencia’s road to the final.