Baskonia begins to really smell the ‘playoff’

Two teams accustomed to exchanging players in recent seasons faced each other. Granger left Vitoria and returned and Wetzell, without going any further, arrived as a temporary worker in the capital of Alava last year but now plays with the yellows. Conversely, cases of giedraitis and of Fontecchio, quite recent. The Lithuanian forward greeted almost the entire German bench before starting the match.

The commitment began with a dunk from Hommes, the man who only plays in the Euroleague so that his knees can hold out (when the European tour ends, he will return to the roster of the league). But the Germans immediately responded with a basket from Smith. Lammers was quickly loaded with two personnel though Olinde began to hit triples. In Baskonia, Marinkovic and, above all, Kotsar stood out, scoring.

Peñarroya’s team defended well, closed the rebound and ran with great success, so production began to grow (23-13, min. 6). A final rush from Lo and Procida brought Alba closer to the score (25-24 at the end of the first quarter). The local traffic jam was huge at the restart. The people from Vitoria took almost five minutes to score a point and received a running score of 0-19. They had 1/8 in triples and the defense had dropped a lot in terms of intensity. The man who broke that streak was Costello, with a penetration after a triple feint that ended in a dunk.

Things returned to normal with a Howard that began to add (41-43) and the nerves eased. It is true that the Cazoo was 4:30 without scoring but then, in 5 minutes, he scored 19 points. Kotsar went to the changing rooms with 14 while Maodo Lo, at Alba, was the top scorer with 12. He was rightly accompanied by the young Procida, who had 11. Otherwise, quite equal in terms of rebounds and turnovers.

The dynamics changed in the third installment. Those from Peñarroya won that period 24-19. The team returned to work in scoring and both Marinkovic as Kotsar or Giedraitis They were very accurate in attack. Darius Thompson reached 200 assists in the Euroleague and, with the 60-58, the Buesa team took the lead again on the scoreboard. In any case, the local team only went up one point in the last ten minutes.

Minute 34 and 70-73. Initial partial of 2-6 with the people from Vitoria charging dangerously with personal fouls. But Thompson, with an accurate triple, tied the game again. Sikma responded with another and it was the second in a row for the American point guard from Baskonia. Exchange of blows waiting for one of the contestants to end up on the canvas. Alba, penultimate, showed its face at all times but in the end it was shown who was really risking their future. There are two finals left at home and another in Piraeus.

The key in the final stretch was Thompson’s inspiration in directing -and scoring- along with the efficiency of a huge Kotsar who, by minute 39, already had a PIR of 40. In fact, the two left the match with double-doubles. Hommes joined the party with a decisive triple and a couple of good Baskonista defenses put the climax to a hectic duel. On Friday, Fenerbahçe awaits in Vitoria. As he said, game by game.

Baskonia bucket

Statistics

13 Darius Thompson
31 Rokas Giedraitis
twenty-one Maik Kotsar
3. 4 Daulton Hommes
0 markus howard
9 Vanja Marinkovic
24 Matt Costello
23 Steven Enoch
2 Sander Rieste
1 Max Heidegger
47 Arthur Kurucs
eleven Dani Diez

Statistics

	Min	pts	RT	RO	DR	Ast	Per	rec	Tap	T1	T2	T3	FR	CF	Val
13 Darius Thompson	3. 4	twenty-one	4	2	2	eleven	3	4	1	7/8	4/7	23	7	1	38
31 Rokas Giedraitis	33	9	8	2	6	1	0	0	0	0/0	3/6	1/5	1	2	10
twenty-one Maik Kotsar	29	23	10	3	7	3	2	2	2	5/6	9/11	0/0	6	1	40
3. 4 Daulton Hommes	24	5	4	0	4	5	2	0	1	0/0	1/1	1/2	1	3	10
0 markus howard	17	eleven	2	1	1	0	1	0	0	6/6	1/5	1/5	3	1	5
9 Vanja Marinkovic	26	fifteen	2	1	1	1	1	2	0	3/6	3/4	2/4	5	3	14
24 Matt Costello	twenty	9	2	1	1	0	0	2	1	3/4	3/3	0/4	2	3	8
23 Steven Enoch	5	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0/0	0/2	0/0	1	1	-3
2 Sander Rieste	4	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	1
1 Max Heidegger	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/1	0	1	-2
47 Arthur Kurucs	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0
eleven Dani Diez	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0

Alba Berlin

Statistics

0 Maodo Lo
4 jaleen smith
43 Luke Sikma
19 Louis Olinde
44 Ben Lammers
1 Gabriele Procida
Four. Five Tamir Blatt
twenty-one Christ Koumadje
7 Yannick Wetzell
32 Johannes Thieman
9 jonas mattiseck
10 Tim Schneider

Statistics

	Min	pts	RT	RO	DR	Ast	Per	rec	Tap	T1	T2	T3	FR	CF	Val
0 Maodo Lo	25	fifteen	4	1	3	4	2	0	0	0/0	3/7	3/5	2	3	13
4 jaleen smith	24	10	1	0	1	3	1	2	0	3/3	2/4	1/6	2	3	6
43 Luke Sikma	22	10	5	1	4	6	0	1	0	1/2	3/5	1/2	1	3	16
19 Louis Olinde	22	10	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0/0	2/2	2/6	1	2	3
44 Ben Lammers	7	3	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0/0	0/1	1/1	0	4	-3
1 Gabriele Procida	17	eleven	3	1	2	0	0	0	0	2/2	3/4	1/4	1	2	8
Four. Five Tamir Blatt	16	eleven	0	0	0	4	4	0	0	0/0	1/2	3/3	0	2	8
twenty-one Christ Koumadje	fifteen	2	4	2	2	1	0	1	1	0/0	1/2	0/0	0	3	5
7 Yannick Wetzell	fifteen	13	8	5	3	2	1	1	2	3/3	5/8	0/0	3	3	twenty-one
32 Johannes Thieman	14	2	5	2	3	1	1	0	0	0/1	1/2	0/2	5	0	8
9 jonas mattiseck	14	0	3	1	2	0	2	0	0	0/0	0/1	0/3	1	1	-3
10 Tim Schneider	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0/0	0/0	0/1	0	0	0