Game of the Week: Will Bourges stay in the race or will Valencia edge towards the Quarter-Finals?

BOURGES (France) - With just four more games of the Regular Season remaining, it looks and feels like a must-win game for Tango Bourges Basket when they host a Valencia Basket Club team in red-hot form.

Sat in fifth place in Group A, there is little room for error for Bourges, while Valencia are chasing down what would be an incredible fifth straight win in the competition - all the more remarkable as every game of this streak has been on the road. 
You can watch the live broadcast of the game between Tango Bourges Basket and Valencia Basket Club on the EuroLeague Women YouTube channel on Wednesday, January 25 at 20:00 CET.

Form guide: Bourges are 5-5 and find themselves starting to sweat a little on claiming a top four spot in the group that would see their campaign extended beyond the Regular Season. Meanwhile, in the French league they are third but in a four-way tie of clubs with a 8-2 record at the top of the standings.

Valencia are flying after those four wins on the bounce and while they currently occupy fourth spot, it is worth noting that there is a three-way tie of teams with a 7-4 record. In the Spanish league, they are joint top in second place with 15 wins and 3 losses.

Last meeting: The historic first ever meeting in the competition between both teams took place earlier in the season and it was Valencia who came out on top with a 76-68 victory. Bourges suffered from some dismal three-point shooting, missing 16 of 19 attempts and that proved costly. Alba Torrens top scored for the Spanish side with 14 points.

Valencia frontcourt star Lauren Cox has been an absolute force under the basket for her team this season

Key matchup: Lauren Cox has been a towering presence inside for Valencia all season long and is playing some of her best career basketball. Her form has coincided with the impressive string of results and Bourges will need Anete Steinberga to really bring it. An accomplished and experienced performer, the Latvian has arguably not been at her absolute peak this year and now would be a great time to make a return to her brilliant best.

'X-factor': When Bourges shot poorly from outside in that first meeting, they probably never envisaged that those downtown struggles would continue to prevail and by late January, they would be shooting sub 24 percent. That is compared to more than 40 percent for Valencia. Never has an 'X-Factor' been quite a clear cut in any of our Games of the Week so far, it's the worst three-point shooting team against the best in this one! 

Wednesday, January 25