By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Markus Howard finally played like himself, having 28 points on 6/9 threes and Baskonia got the road win.
Pablo Laso’s team prevailed in Belgrade over Maccabi (95-85) keeping the opponents at a distance for most of the night and climbing to a 7-9 record, while the Israelis dropped to 4-12.
Chima Moneke added 17 points and eight rebounds, as everything clicked for the winning side.
“Last week was probably the most painful loss of my career and it’s for me to blame, so we needed to be better now”, said Moneke after the game, referring to the 82-81 home defeat to Virtus Bologna, where he fouled Will Clyburn almost at the buzzer, giving him a four-point play.
Roman Sorkin with 22 points and Rokas Jokubaitis with 22 were the top scorers of Maccabi, Tamir Blatt added 14 points and seven assists, however, none of them could turn the tide.
Building a lead from the start
Baskonia closed the first period with 10 unanswered points, building an eight-point lead (34-23) as Howard already had nine points on 3/3 threes.
With his fourth three in the game on four attempts, Baskonia had a 15-point distance (40-25) at the start of the second quarter. Maccabi tried to react but couldn’t contain Baskonia which led by 14 at halftime (57-43) with Howard having 16 points in 14 minutes of action on 6/6 FG.
Nothing changed in the third period which ended with Baskonia up by 15 (75-60), the guests extended their lead to 18 (90-72) and Maccabi couldn’t come back.
The best Maccabi could do was trim the lead to 10 (95-85) with one minute left, when it was already too late.