By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Markus Howard scored 28 points (11-20) without a free throw as Baskonia beat Real Madrid 92 – 86 in the All-Spanish EuroLeague clash of the week. Baskonia bids farewell to 2022 with a sixth straight win in EuroLeague to improve to 11-5 while Real dropped to 10-6.
“This is a great win,” Howard said. “Our fans were amazing, best in Europe in my opinion. They showed that tonight, they really helped us, with their energy, get a win against a great team. Great team win, but this win was also for the fans, too. They had to do as much with the win as we did.
Howard had 21 of his points by the 18th minute of the game in a one-man show stretch to push Baskonia towards taking even a 19-point lead, 59 – 40 just before halftime. Real greatly improved their defense and rallied for a major comeback after the break to ultimately manage to cut the deficit to 73 – 71 early in the fourth quarter.
Rokas Giedraitis (season-high 21 points plus five rebounds) drained two 3-pointers in a row as Baskonia moved beyond a shooting distance again. Real had several opportunities to approach closer but some mistakes and missed open shots in key moments prevented them from doing so.
The trio of Gabriel Deck (17 points, six rebounds), Nigel Williams-Goss (season-high 16 points plus five assists) and Edy Tavares (15 points, 12 rebounds) led Real overall while Fabien Causeur (seven rebounds) led the Blancos’ efforts to contain Howard in the second half. Baskonia’s leading scorer still dropped seven points in the first eight minutes of the third period before going silent for the rest of the match.
They deserved the victory,” Real coach Chus Mateo said. “They played much better than us more time. We tried to tie the game in the second half but it was not enough. There was a big difference in the second quarter.”
Baskonia took big advantage of Real’s 15 turnovers by translating these extra possessions to 28 points. “An important victory against a great, great opponent, but most important for us tonight is the Buesa atmosphere,”Baskonia coach Joan Penarroya commented, joining most of his players’ praises for the fans. “This is the most important tonight. We came to win with a score [by a big margin] but in the second half, we had problems. We played with character, played good defense, and this is the way.”