By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Baskonia defeated Gran Canaria 84 – 71 with five players scoring in double figures to capture its third win in a row in EuroLeague and improve its record to 6-7.
Matt Janning and Shavon Shields scored a game-high 16 points apiece while Jayson Granger added 15 points. Luca Vildoza had 13 points plus six assists and Ilmane Diop dropped 10 points.
Only Kim Tillie scored double-digit numbers for Gran Canaria, finishing with 11. The team from Las Palmas lost its first game after three wins in a row and dropped to 5-8.
It was Gran Canaria that entered the game in a dynamic fashion to take a 23 – 14 lead but Baskonia strengthened its defense and proceeded to close the first half up 35 – 41.
Coach Perasovic‘s team then dominated the third quarter to get a double-digit advantage and proceeded to assume complete control of the match. With three minutes remaining, the Basques went up even by 20, 82 – 62.
As Perasovic said: “It is a very important win. Now, after two victories in a row, we are again in the playoffs race. After this victory, it is very important to beat Barcelona at home, and after that, we can say that we are really in that race. I think that, after the first quarter, we started to play defense, especially in the second quarter, when we made a little difference. In the third quarter, we played good defense and after that, the difference was too big. I think that was the key.”