Bitci Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz snapped a three-game losing streak by comfortably overcoming LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne, 91-66, in a game of two halves on Thursday night.
Birthday boy Fontecchio leads Baskonia past ASVEL, 91-66
The first half was very closely contested with several lead changes and neither team able to get ahead by more than 5 points, as the interval came with Baskonia up 45-44. But the home side raced into a double-digit lead in the third quarter, and ASVEL never looked like recovering as its offense suffered a misfiring second half. Simone Fontecchio led the way for Baskonia by scoring 15 points on his 26th birthday. Rokas Giedraitis also scored 15, while Steven Enoch added 14, Matt Costello and Wade Baldwin IV both scored 13. Chris Jones paced ASVEL with 17 points and Victor Wembanyama added 10 points. Baskonia improves to 5-9 while ASVEL now has an equal number of wins and losses at 7-7.
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Giedraitis opened the scoring from deep and Enoch soon added two big dunks, but three scores from Jones - including a three-point play - gave ASVEL its first lead, 7-9. Marcos Knight was also on target as the game entered a phase of slow scoring, before Baldwin livened up proceedings with a slam in transition, 11-11. James Gist scored 5 fast points to send ASVEL back in front, Costello was also on target twice and Jones split free throws to make it 19-19 after ten minutes. Jones netted again to start the second quarter, before Baldwin and Charles Kahudi traded triples. Kahudi scored in transition for a 22-26 lead, but Costello’s threeball and two scores from Fontecchio forced another lead change. Wembanyama scored 5 points in a hurry to tie it, 33-33, and scoring was evenly shared before a good finish from Fontecchio and a slam from Giedtraitis made it 43-38. Gist hit back with a triple and Jones added a layup and one, but Baldwin scored in penetration for a 45-44 lead at half-time.
Enoch netted the first 4 points of the second half, before Wembanyama and Fontecchio were on target from beyond the arc. Elie Okobo and Fontecchio also traded triples before Enoch stretched the lead to 57-50. Enoch dunked again and Costello added another slam for a double-digit lead, 63-52. Fontecchio added a triple before Kahudi ended a 9-0 run from the foul line. Jayson Granger had the final word of the third quarter with a triple for a 69-55 lead. Baldwin’s jumper added to the lead at the start of the fourth, before William Howard tried to get ASVEL moving with a triple. But Granger also struck from deep before a few minutes of slow scoring were ended by an open dunk for Landry Nnoko and a three for Giedraitis, making it 80-60. Giedraitis added another triple to ensure the outcome was sealed long before the end, and ASVEL had just the consolation of a ferocious late dunk from Wembanyama.