By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Barcelona beat Baskonia 85 – 78 on the road to become just the second team to leave Vitoria with a victory in the 2022-23 EuroLeague regular season. While the Blaugrana improved to 13-7 by registering their second straight win, the Basque side dropped to 11-9 after a fourth consecutive defeat.
Nikola Mirotic led a balanced Barcelona effort with 15 points and six rebounds. Rokas Jokubaitis had 13 points and Tomas Satoransky scored 11 points and dished out four assists in his return to action after missing three EuroLeague games. Sarunas Jasikevicius’ players put on an excellent defensive effort and hustle on both ends, to grab a huge amount of 18 offensive rebounds.
“It was important for us,” Mirotic said. “We knew how important it is because we played against probably the best offensive team in Europe. But we stepped up defensively, doing a good job.”
While Barcelona didn’t get this many points (14) from its second-chance opportunities, this dominance in the boards didn’t allow Baskonia to play its favorite high-paced and effective offensive game. The hosts, who heavily rely on their 3-point shooting as the team with the most triples in EuroLeague, also finished with 8-28 from beyond the arc.
Tadas Sedekerskis had 16 points and six rebounds for the Pierria Henry-less Baskonia while Daulton Holmes scored 12. Rokas Giedraitis dropped 11 points and Darius Thompson posted 10 points plus five assists.
After trailing 28 – 24 near the end of the first period, Barcelona made went on to assume a 33-44 lead just before halftime and remained ahead for the rest of the match. Baskonia approached by a shooting distance in the third quarter but once again its opponents pulled away and took a 70 – 81 advantage with 2:36 remaining.
Markus Howard made his first triple after six misses to make it 78 – 83 with 1:01 to play but Baskonia didn’t manage to complete the comeback. “We had a lot of problems with our defensive rebounds,” Baskonia coach Joan Penarorrya commented. “It’s impossible to win vs. Barcelona like that.”
“Every time we win, I’m happy,” Saras said. “Especially when playing against this kind of team. They play great basketball and are a very difficult team to stop but we took down their numbers.”