By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Partizan for three quarters was leading and was eager to start the season with a road win. Still, Vitoria is not the easiest place to do that.
Baskonia managed to turn things around in the second half and close the game the right way, getting in the end an 88-82 win, which was also their biggest lead in the game.
Markus Howard with 17, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot with 15 points, including an impressive dunk, Tadas Sedekerskis with 14, and Chima Moneke with 13 points were the top scorer of coach Pablo Laso’s unit.
On the other side, newcomers Brandon Davies (20 p.) and Tyrique Jones (22 p.) had impressive numbers, however they could finish the job.
“It was a good game, small details decided the outcome. Three times in transition we failed to take advantage of the opportunity to score easy points. On the other hand, Baskonia scored three or four times at the end of the shot clock from three-point range. That made the difference in the game,” said coach Zeljko Obradović at the post-game press conference.
A second half comeback
The front-line duo of Davies (11 p.) and Jones (10 p.) took matters into their hands in the first half for Partizan.
Despite a 9-3 start by Baskonia, the Serbs were up by one (17-16) at the end of the first period and had a six-point cushion (38-32) after 20 minutes of action. For the home side, Howard had already 10 points on 2/4 threes, but the rest of the team made one out of eight attempts.
Things changed in the third quarter with Moneke taking action and Baskonia finally tying the score at 54.
Two threes by Isaac Bonga and Iffe Lunberg gave Partizan the lead again (60-54) but Baskonia made it a one-point game (60-59) to end the quarter and finally got up by one (73-72) thanks to a three by Trent Forrest who finished the night with 10 points.
Donta Hall added two free throws for a three-point cushion (75-72) to enter the last five minutes of the game and Partizan couldn’t get the lead after that. Baskonia led even by eight (84-76) with Partizan succeeding at least to trim the final point difference in case of a future tie.
Photo credit: EuroLeague