By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Mario Hezonja beat the game buzzer from downtown to give Real Madrid a 90-89 win over Baskonia at home. The Croatian forward had also put the triple that brought his team close 87-88 before his game-winner.
With 10 seconds remaining and Baskonia up by two points after a basket by Luka Samanic, Facu Campazzo tried to make a drive toward the basket only to find his way blocked by opponents.
He lost the ball to Chima Moneke’s defense but Serge Ibaka grabbed it and gave it to Hezonja.
Hezonja made a small pump fake to get rid of Moneke’s defense and then hit the 3-pointer jumper as the final buzzer sounded in the arena.
SUPER MARIO 🌟pic.twitter.com/d5fekEMTI3
— Eurohoops (@Eurohoopsnet) January 23, 2025
“Terrible game for me, terrible game for the team but we won,” Hezonja said. He finished with 22 points and five rebounds. “
This is always nice to give a show for our fans also. This is what they paid to see, no? But if we want to get as far as we want to this year we have to correct these errors now. Everything becomes so important and we need to get up in the standings. So we need to get better.”
Apart from Hezonja, Campazzo also had 22 points to go with his six assists and four rebounds.
With this result, Real improved to 13-10 and Baskonia dropped to 9 – 14.
A balanced game until the end
Nikos Rogkavopoulos registered EuroLeague career-high 22 points and 11 rebounds while Trent Forrest had 19 points.
Their team made quite the comeback down the stretch to turn an 84 – 75 deficit to 84 – 88 and then Hezonja stepped up for the hosts.
It was quite the battle between two teams that walked hand in hand, with Real Madrid leading 22-21 after the first half, Baskonia taking the three-point advantage at halftime (45-42) and entering the last period up by one point (67-66).