By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Wade Baldwin scored 16 out of his team-high 20 points in the second half while dishing out a career-high-tying 11 assists as Baskonia defeated Anadolu Efes 87 – 74 at home to snap an eight-game skid in EuroLeague for its first 2022 win in the competition.
“I feel very good. We got a win in the Spanish League against Real Madrid and now we came back to beat the reigning champions,” Baldwin said. “We are finding our groove a little bit. So I’m happy.”
Efes was up 36 – 43 at halftime courtesy of Shane Larkin and Vasilije Micic who had 15 and 13 points respectively by the break. With Baskonia down 40 – 48 early in the third period, Baldwin led the charge with nine points during a 13 – 2 run that put his team in the driver’s seat for good.
It was as if the roles were reversed and now Baskonia was the team with the strong offensive hand while Efes was reduced to playing catch up. The hosts had a decisive stretch during the fourth period when they scored 13 points in four minutes to go ahead 80 – 68 with 3:13 to play and didn’t allow their opponents to become threatening in the final lap of the match.
Micic finished with 23 points for Efes while Larkin finished with 21 on 7-13 triples after closing the first half with 5-5 from beyond the arc. No other Efes player scored more than eight.
In the meantime, Baskonia had a lot of players contributing apart from Baldwin. Simone Fontecchio scored 15 and grabbed five rebounds, Sander Raieste had all of his 11 points in the fourth period, Matt Costello posted 10 points plus 10 boards while Rokas Giedraitis completed the game with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
One fine transformation
That’s what Baskonia coach Neven Spahija saw from his player after they returned from the locker room at halftime. The Croatian coach also highlighted Baldwin’s performance and what his star player needs to focus on to be even more productive.
“I want to congratulate our team for this win,” Spahija said. “Once again, the first half was not so good but we cleaned that up in the second half, with better defense and hitting shots. The team is doing well, better than before, which they can see after two weeks of practicing. What makes me happy is that many different players scored and are rebounding the ball better. No one is outrebounding us. We changed our defense in the first half, but some players did not react well. You have more time to explain things at halftime and since we practiced a lot lately, they knew what they had to do. Like I said on TV at halftime, the difference between both teams after the break was the three-point defense. We needed to adjust and once we did it, the team controlled the rebounds and went to the open court to play our basketball. We scored 26 and 25 points in the third and fourth quarters, allowing just 15 and 16. They only scored 3 three-pointers [after the break]. This is the Baldwin we want and lately, he is playing really good basketball. I don’t have any doubts about Baldwin and his talent, what he can do. He needs to calm down and have confidence. The team likes the way he plays and today, he had 11 assists. He is a very important player for us.”