BELGRADE, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Valencia edged Serbia's basketball champion Red Star (Crvena Zvezda) 82-81 here on Wednesday, booking a quarterfinal berth of the Eurocup.
With the fourth win in the Top 16 phase, Valencia sealed the first place in Group G, while Red Star lost their third match and any chance to survive.
Valencia won the tense match in front of some 5,900 fans at the Aleksandar Nikolic hall, thanks to a field-goal by Sam Van Rossom in the final seconds.
Bojan Dubljevic opened the lead for Valencia in the first minutes with two consecutive three-pointers, and scored most of its early points. Stratos Perperoglou was precise from distance in the Serbian team, but guests were 4 points ahead at the break.
Red Star woke up in the second quarter and achieved its own series thanks to points of Billy Baron. Although Red Star took over the lead, Sam Van Rossom did not allow the home team to widen the gap.
The Spanish team got back into the game in the second part of the third quarter thanks to another series of Dubljevic who created a 10-point gap for guests, which the home team again reduced to 6 points before the break.
Red star took over the lead again in the final quarter, thanks to points of Filip Covic at 79-77. Ragland raised hopes of the home fans with a field goal just 30 seconds before the end for 81-80, but Sam Van Rossom fought back and scored the winning field goal.
Best in the ranks of the winning team was Bojan Dubljevic with 24 points and 5 assists, followed by Will Thomas who scored 11 points. On the other side, Stratos Perperoglou stood out with 26 points.
Both teams will play next round as guests - Red Star against Limoges, and Valencia against Malaga.
