VALENCIA (ACB) - Valencia Basket Club's 81-74 victory over Caja Laboral on Sunday offered plenty of food for thought for fans of Spanish basketball.

The Taronja had been in crisis after heavy defeats at Regal Barcelona on October 14, 87-62, and at Dexia Mons-Hainaut on October 20, 78-63.

Valencia righted the ship, though, coming back from the first-leg deficit in the Eurocup Qualifying Round to beat Dexia by 18 points in overtime in Spain and win the tie.

Then, with the fans still in party mode, Valencia prevailed over Caja Laboral on Sunday.

Two men stand out for Valencia right now.

They are guard Rafa Martinez and coach Neven Spahija.

In a country known for producing high caliber guards, including Barcelona duo Ricky Rubio and Juan Carlos Navarro, Khimki Moscow Region pair Raul Lopez and Carlos Cabezas and even NBA playmakers Jose Calderon and Sergio Rodriguez, the 27-year-old Martinez was the best last week.

He had a game-high 18 points in Valencia's come-from-behind act against Dexia, leading them to a 79-61 win.

Riding the momentum of that performance, Martinez erupted for 23 points against Caja Laboral as Valencia won for the fourth time in five ACB games and moved into a share of second place.

As a reward, Martinez, a former youth international with Spain, was voted Player of the Week in the ACB.

"I am very happy, especially with how we won," he said.

"The game against Barcelona and the first-leg game in Belgium were a lesson to us. We know that if we don't give 100%, we are a vulnerable team.

"We hope that we can continue to improve."

In the ACB, Martinez has shot 12 of 24 from long range and made 22 of 22 free-throws.

He says that he and his teammates thrived with the big crowds at both games.

"The fans' support has been crucial to us," he said.

"We saw it in yesterday's game (v Caja Laboral) as well as in our game against Dexia.

"We need them and we want to bring them joy."

No player should ever give up on his dream of representing his country.

Though Spain would appear to have an abundance of guards ahead of Martinez, all he can do is put up game-winning performances to merit consideration.

Sunday's win against Caja Laboral was also very satisfying for Spahija, who in the 2007-08 campaign had led the club when it was known as Tau Ceramica to the ACB title.

The Vitoria outfit, however, decided not to continue with Spahija and instead handed the reins back to Dusko Ivanovic, their former coach who had been fired by Barcelona during the 2007-08 season.

Spahija, a former Croatia national team coach, had read Valencia the riot act after their 15-point debacle at Dexia on October 20 but against his old team, they gave him a lot of pleasure.

"We deserved the victory thanks again to the support of the fans," he said.

"The team has done a great job. I want to thank the fans. Caja Laboral is a big club and it's not easy to beat them but we had patience and a balanced play."

Meanwhile, one of the Valencia players singled out for criticism after the first-leg defeat at Dexia, Rawle Marshall, has left the team.

The club announced they had reached an agreement to end the Marshall's, who had been tied to the team until the end of the season.

Marshall had arrived at Valencia this summer from Lokomotiv Rostov.

Barcelona suffered a double-whammy in their 78-75 defeat at Estudiantes.

Both Navarro and Italy's Gianluca Basile went down with ankle sprains.

Navarro's injury was not deemed to be that serious while Basile isn't expected back for a month.

The defeat for Estudiantes dropped the famous Spanish team to 0-5.

That is the same record of Unicaja Malaga who unlike Estu are supposed to be one of the best teams in the league.

In the Euroleague, Unicaja have won both of their games, beating Partizan Belgrade and Olympiacos but they lost 63-61 at Cajasol Sevilla on Sunday.

To make matters worse, Georgios Printezis, Unicaja's big summer signing from Greece, suffered a should injury after dunking and then falling hard to the floor.

He will miss some games.

Aito Garcia Reneses, the Unicaja coach, didn't mention Printezis' injury but rather dwelled on his team's defensive breakdown.

"We lacked the intelligence to defend their best shooters like (Tyrone) Ellis and (Dusko) Savanovic and you know before the game that they are a danger in long range shooting and that you shouldn't leave them open," he said.

"They made their shots while we didn't.

"Some of my players didn't keep up their concentration and Cajasol used this in their favor to score more points than us."

Other results: CB Murcia 73 Lagun Aro GBC 81, Bizkaia Bilbao Basket 70 Real Madrid 96, Meridiano Alicante 71 Suzuki Manresa 54, Xacobeo Blu:sens 86 Ayuda en acción Fuenlabrada 66, Gran Canaria 2014 102 CB Granada 65, DKV Joventut 70 Blancos de Rueda Valladolid 65.

FIBA