By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
After losing by 25 points to Valencia in their domestic league, Baskonia at home needed to bounce back.
They got it against Fenerbahce with the final 88-76 being almost flattering for the losing side which will now have to settle for second place in the standings with a 9-4 record.
Baskonia with 6-7 has still a long way to climb, but finally after getting 17 points on 5/9 threes by Markus Howard, seems to be getting back on track.
Howard scored a three after 24 straight misses over the last five games.
“Our first half was very good on defense, we established where we wanted to be and from defense, we can start building something”, said Baskonia coach Pablo Laso.
Greek forward Nikos Rogkavopoulos added 15 points, while Kamar Baldwin and Donta Hall had 15 points each.
Fenerbahce had an off-night with Tarik Biberovic and Arturs Zagars being the top scorers with 13 points each.
Baskonia from wire to wire
Baskonia opened up the game with a 26-12 first period and Howard had nine points on 3/3 threes, finally shooting like expected. Fenerbahce couldn’t recover and the home side closed the first half leading by 20 (45-25).
Fenerbahce had already 10 turnovers while shooting 38,5% in two-pointers and 22,2% in threes.
In the second half, the guests tried to come back, but it was too little, too late.
Artus Zagars trimmed the lead to 16 with a three at the buzzer of the third quarter (63-47), and Fenerbahce made it a 12-point game (84-72) in the closing seconds when they couldn’t do much more.
Photo credit: EuroLeague