Valencia played a more consistent basketball than Tenerife in game 1
Game 1 of the ACB League semifinal series between Valencia and Tenerife was played yesterday evening in the La Fonteta and the hosts comfortably took the lead in the series.
Tenerife scored the first 6 points of the game, but then Jaime Pradilla scored his first three field goals in the first three minutes, and Valencia started to slowly pull away. In the second quarter, the ‘’Taronja’’ already had a 16-point lead (45-29). Tenerife managed to cut the deficit in the 3rd quarter to only three points (53-50), but that was the closest they got. The team from the Canary Islands scored only 6 points in the 4th, and Valencia won in the end 83-65.
Jean Montero was again the leading scorer for Valencia. The Dominican player scored 16 points and was followed by Chris Jones and Jaime Pradilla with 14 points each (Pradilla also grabbed 10 rebounds). Marcelinho Huertas impressed once again, being the leading scorer of the game. The 42-year-old Brazilian, who also won the league MVP award, had 18 points, while Aaron Doornekamp followed him with 17 points for the losing team. The second game will be held tomorrow, also in Valencia, as it’s a best-of-five series.
Tonight, Game 1 of the second semifinal will be played in the Movistar Arena in Madrid between Real Madrid and Unicaja Malaga. Real had a difficult opponent in Baskonia in the quarterfinals, but they managed to win both games, while Malaga came after a dramatic series against Barcelona, where 2 out of the 3 games needed overtime to decide the winner, and Malaga proved to be mentally stronger in the end. It will be an interesting series where Real is the favourite, but Malaga showed they are a team that has great quality and they never give up.
Imre Halasz
Photo: Diario As
