Canadians Abroad: Aaron Doornekamp's Perfect Game in St Petersburg
Ontario-born Aaron Doornekamp has long been a firm fixture of European club basketball. Since beginning his professional career in 2009 he has played domestically in Italy, Germany and Spain. He has been with Spanish club Valencia since 2017, winning the EuroCup with them in 2019, which saw them promoted to the Euroleague.
Their start to the 2019-20 campaign was not the one they had hoped for, losing the first five games, but Valencia were able to turn it around and by Round 20 of the competition they were sitting in the playoff zone with a 10-10 record. There weren't to know, though, that at this point they were about to see their stiffest fixture of the season.
Their opponents on January 17th, Zenit St. Petersburg, had already lost to Valencia earlier in the competition, 94-90. That was in Spain, now they were on their home court and looking for a home win to restore pride and get them off the foot of the table. Valencia had other plans, though, and Doornekamp was to play an important part in them.
The start of the game saw four first quarter lead changes, which ended with Doornekamp instigating a 7-0 Valencia run that put them up by four. When play resumed Brock Motum and Vanja Markinovic combined to increase Valencia's lead, only for Will Thomas and Colton Iverson to start cutting that down for the Russian team.
Andrew Albicy gave Zenit their first lead of the game midway through the second. Valencia responded with eight unanswered points and then finished the quarter with two three-pointers. On-target three-point shooting from Albicy on the other end, though, saw Valencia's half time lead stand only at four points.
Iverson opened the scoring for St. Petersburg at the start of the second half, but Valencia's Alberto Abalde was also finding good looks at the same time. Midway through the third Doornekamp hit a three, giving the Spanish visitors an eight-point lead and later Motum put them up by double digits at the quarter's end.
Marinkovic and Sam Van Rossom continued to add to Valencia's scoreline in the fourth, but after two separate runs of six and nine unanswered points, Zenit tied the game. Maurice Ndour restored the lead to Valencia and Doornekamp increased it still with another shot from beyond the arc, then assisted Guillem Vives for a further two points.
Another three from Doornekamp put Valencia up eight with a minute to go, but Zenit were not about to give up. Andrey Zubkov and Austin Hollins combined to make it a three-point game, but Sam Van Rossom drew a foul and hit two from the line to put Valencia up five. Doornekamp had the last touch of the ball, Valencia ensuring the hard-fought victory was theirs.
Aaron Doornekamp played perfect offence in this one, making every shot attempt as he finished with 11 points, one of three Valencia players to finish in double digits. Vanja Markinovic led the Spanish club with 14, but while Andrew Albicy led all with 18 points for Zenit St Petersburg, it was not enough to get the win for the Russian team. Valencia made theirs a winning record by a final result of 86-81.
