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oct 02 2026Valencia Basket left Lyon with their third straight victory after trailing by eighteen points. They defeated ASVEL Villeurbanne 92-105, completely transforming the game at halftime: allowing 61 points in the first half and just 31 in the second.
Seventeen Minutes and Sixty Points for ASVEL
The start was a defensive disaster. ASVEL scored sixty points in the first seventeen minutes and led by as much as eighteen (60-42), shooting 8 of 11 from three-point range in the first half with an unstoppable Patty Mills who scored his first seventeen points without missing a shot. Hugo Besson added from beyond the arc and Xavi Albert's team couldn't find a way to stop anything.
The first quarter closed at 33-21 and yet Valencia did something useful before halftime: they started defending. They won the second quarter by one (28-29) and went into the locker room down eleven (61-50), with the feeling that the worst was behind them.
The Second Half Was a Different Game
What came out of the locker room was a different team. Valencia became much more aggressive defensively and ASVEL had no answers: 16 points in the third quarter and 15 in the fourth. Thirty-one points in the final twenty-three minutes of play.
On offense, Nikola Mirotic was the main force with 22 points and appeared in every stretch when a bucket was needed. TJ Shorts ran the team and finished with 17. The third quarter went 16-26 and the game was already turned around.
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Taylor Sealed the Deal
The final quarter was signed by Kameron Taylor, who finished with 14 points and hit the three-pointers that sealed the game when ASVEL could still believe. Valencia led by as much as thirteen in the final stretch, a margin no one imagined seeing after the first quarter.
Matt Reuvers contributed 13 points, and Osetkowski and Puerto added nine each in a very balanced effort: ten players scored. Neal Sako, without much on the scoreboard, was important on the boards.
For ASVEL, Mills finished with 26 points and Besson with 19, but the French team ran out of gas. Nate Sestina was fouled out in the final minute.
Three of Three
Valencia maintains a perfect record in the EuroLeague, after winning in Istanbul in the first matchday and dominating Baskonia at home (111-88). It is by far the best European start among the four Spanish teams in the competition: Barcelona is 2-1, Baskonia is still struggling to find their rhythm, and Real Madrid has accumulated three losses in three games.
