The Spanish side hands Fenerbahce its first road loss of the season
Baskonia beats Fenerbahce, 88-76, for second straight win
Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz secured an important 88-76 home victory in beating Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul for a second straight win and handing the visitors their first road loss of the season. Baskonia has now strung together back-to-back wins after a five-game losing streak to improve to 6-7.
Markus Howard led the way with 17 points on 5 three-pointers for Baskonia while Nikos Rogkavopoulos scored 15 points, Kamar Baldwin had 14 points and Donta Hall collected 14 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocks. Fenerbahce had been the last undefeated team away from home at 5-0 but now drops to 9-4 overall with a second defeat in a row. Arturs Zagars and Tarik Biberovic both scored 13 points in the loss.
Game Videos
After Khem Birch put Fenerbahce on the board to start the game, Howard drained 3 triples and Tadas Sedekerskis added a long ball of his own for an 18-9 Baskonia lead. Kamar Baldwin also hit a triple and Rogkavopoulos had 4 points in the final stretch of the first quarter to give Baskonia a 26-12 lead.
Sander Rieste started the second quarter with a three-pointer and Baskonia was up 29-12. Fenerbahce tried to get back into the game with triples from Biberovic and Zagars to make it 34-21. Baskonia came up with another big punch as Kamar Baldwin scored two baskets and Chima Moneke added 5 points in an 11-2 run to open a 45-23 gap. The score was 45-25 at the break.
Howard continued his hot outside shooting with a three-pointer and Hall scored after Trent Forrest nutmegged Nigel Hayes-Davis for a layup to make it 50-25. Fenerbahce finally scored after 3 minutes played and Wade Baldwin tallied 6 straight points to pull the visitors within 54-35. Howard ended the rut with his fifth three-pointer only to see Fenerbahce get the deficit down to 59-42. The score was 63-47 after 30 minutes as Zagars hit a long three at the buzzer.
Zagars opened the final frame with another triple and it was only a 13-point game. Rogkavopoulos had 2 triples and Sedekerskis added one in a stretch of 1:19 minutes as the advantage grew to 72-55. Hall followed with three straight dunks and the cushion was 78-60 with 5 minutes to play. Fenerbahce tried some defensive pressure and managed to create some mistakes and trimmed the gap to 86-74, but Hall threw down a putback dunk to end all doubts.