By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
A dominant performance for Real Madrid secured the win, 88-60, against struggling Bitci Baskonia on Thursday evening.
French Fabien Causeur logged 11 out of his 13 points in the first quarter of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season Round 12 fixture hosted at Fernando Buesa Arena. Thomas Heurtel added to his country’s contribution with 12 points to his name. French bigs Vincent Poirier and Guerschon Yabusele ended up with eight and seven points, respectively.
“I think we controlled the pace of the game for 40 minutes. Great job for everyone,” noted Causeur, “I think we have to go day by day and keep improving. It is a long season, a lot of ups and downs will come.”
“We played great basketball since the beginning of the game,” added Heurtel, “We started the game with a good mentality and tonight we showed our character and were 28 points up.”
Among the other players standing out in the fantastic team showing, Walter Tavares packed 12 points and three blocks. Alberto Abalde chipped in five points, 11 rebounds, and four assists for the ninth straight win across all competitions.
Steven Enoch scoring the first nine Baskonia points made out a team-high 14 points. Italian Simone Fontecchio also put in 14 points for the team led by Neven Spahija.
“I don’t think that we were at the level of this game except for the first five minutes. The rest of the game, they did what they wanted and killed the game,” noted the Croatian head coach, “This is not the way how we are going to play basketball and how Baskonia is supposed to play. This means we can win, we can lose but we have to play as a team.”
The Whites entered the game versus the fellow ACB team sharing the lead in the standings with FC Barcelona and improved to 10-2. They are also tied with the archrival in the first place of the Spanish League at 10-1.
“I believe there were details in which we made mistakes, silly turnovers, some offensive rebounds that they grabbed, but in general terms, we had control of the game through our defense,” said Pablo Laso, “I think that if someone told me before the season that at this time we would be leading the Spanish League, won the Spanish Supercopa and leading the EuroLeague, I would have signed those results.”
Jeffery Taylor and Carlos Alocen remained sidelined along with Anthony Randolph and Trey Thompkins. However, Laso expects a fully healthy team in practice to start next week, he noted before the visit at Vitoria-Gasteiz.
The first team reaching ten wins in the 2021-22 EuroLeague season is scheduled to host Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv next Thursday. Baskonia, still down Alec Peters and Sander Raieste, will be visiting Zalgiris Kaunas, after falling to 4-8.