By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Markus Howard scored a career-high 37 points, including an important four-point play in crunch time, as Baskonia beat Barcelona 103 – 96 in a game for Round 24 of the Spanish ACB League regular season.
Howard, who shot 8 – 22 triples (passing Oscar Schmidt’s 19 attempts for a new all-time ACB record), had 14 of his points during the third quarter where Baskonia took an 82 – 68 advantage, shortly before the end of the period.
Nicolas Laprovittola had 10 points (12 overall) in the first seven minutes of the fourth quarter to lead a Barca comeback effort and make it 92 – 90.
Howard then produced seven out of the next nine points for his team, hitting a triple and winning the foul to make it 101 – 92 with 1:08 to play. Thanks to this result Baskonia moved cone win closer to the playoff zone, improving to 13-11. Third-placed Barca is now 16 – 8.
Matt Costello added 23 points for Baskonia. Jabari Parker led Barca with 21 points and Willy Hernangomez had 16 points plus seven rebounds.
2023-24 ACB Round 24 Results:
Rio Breogan – Unicaja Malaga 65 – 76
Joventut Badalona – BAXI Manresa 81 – 83
UCAM Murcia – Basquet Girona 81 – 73
Gran Canaria – Zaragoza 111 – 85
Obradoiro – Valencia 75 – 97
Real Madrid – Tenerife 80 – 78
Granada – Bilbao 87 – 79
Palencia – Andorra 77 – 70
Baskonia – Barcelona 103 – 96
Standings: Real Madrid 21 – 3, Malaga 20 – 4, Barca 16 – 8, Gran Canaria 16 – 8 …