By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Baskonia didn’t only defeat Bayern Munich 76 – 68 at home for Round 22 of the EuroLeague regular season but also overcame the six-point deficit from the first-round loss (77-71) to the German team to get the tiebreaking advantage.
Thanks to this result, the injury-plagued (Tornike Shengelia, Jayson Granger, Patito Garino out) Baskonia improved its record to 11 -11 and caught up with Bayern at the seventh spot in the standings.
It all came down to the final minutes of the fourth period. Bayern came back from a nine-point deficit (62 – 53) they fell behind at the end of the fourth to make it a one-possession affair, 64 – 62. Yet Baskonia reacted with consecutive triples plus a bucket by its top performer Vincent Poirier (11 points, 11 rebounds) to get a 10-point advantage, 72 – 62, with 2:28 remaining.
It was a margin that proved to be a game-winning one for the Basques since their opponents didn’t approach closer to six points, despite plenty of opportunities to do so.
“We have tough rivals coming to our court, so if we want to go into the playoffs we have to win one of our three road games. We play against Madrid, Efes, Khimki, Zalgiris at home, so it is not easy to win every game at home and get a playoff classification,” Baskonia head coach Velimir Perasovic said.
Derrick Williams had 18 points for Bayern while Danilo Barthel scored 11. Apart from Poirier, Matt Janning scored 13 (including a key 3-pointer in Baskonia’s run for the late 10-point lead) and Jalen Jones 12 in 14 minutes. Johannes Voigtmann added 10 points (and also a key triple down the stretch) plus nine boards.