Baskonia dominated the glass and shot well from deep to win in Belgrade
Howard propels Baskonia to road victory, 85-95, over Maccabi
Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz used a 0-10 run to close the first quarter and never looked back en route to an 85-95 victory over Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv on Tuesday night at Aleksandar Nikolic Hall in Belgrade. The winners outrebounded Maccabi 25-40 and shot 12 for 26 from downtown (46.2%) in two of the keys to the victory that lifted Baskonia’s record to 7-9, while dropping Maccabi to 4-12.
Markus Howard led the way with 28 points on 6-of-9 three-point shooting and Chima Moneke tallied 17 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists to lead Baskonia. Tadas Sedekerskis posted 12 points and 9 rebounds, Nikos Rogkavopoulos added 11 and 7 and Donta Hall scored 10 for the winners. Rokas Jokubaitis paced Maccabi with 22 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists, Roman Sorkin also scored 22, Tamir Blatt amassed 14 points and 7 assists and Jaylen Hoard scored 14, too.
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Little separated the teams in the early going with Hoard and Moneke leading their respective sides. Blatt stepped up with back-to-back three-pointers to give Maccabi a 15-10 lead. Wenyen Gabriel had to leave the game early to receive stitches on a cut on his hand and would not return. Hall came alive with 5 quick points for Baskonia to even things. Sorkin made an impact off the bench for Maccabi though Howard’s hot shooting kept the teams square, 21-21. A triple by Kamar Baldwin nudged Baskonia in front and then Rogkavopoulos heated up. Howard drained a triple to cap a 0-10 Baskonia run to lead 23-34 after 10 minutes.
More threes by Rogkavopoulos and Howard extended the margin to 15 points just 90 seconds into the second quarter. Sedekerskis joined the three-point shootout to make it 27-43. Baskonia had made 8 of 10 three-pointers to this point, while Maccabi was 2 of 8 from behind the arc. Led by Jokubaitis and Sorkin, Maccabi chipped away at the deficit, but Sedekerskis and co. remained comfortably ahead. Blatt narrowed the gap to 10, but Baskonia pulled away again as Sander Raiste connected from deep. A free throw by Sorkin made it 43-57 at the break.
Jokubaitis shined early in the second half with a layup and an assist to Hoard for a slam, but Baskonia seemed to have an answer for nearly every basket. After Sedekerskis made an uncontested fastbreak dunk for a 50-65 lead, Sorkin helped Maccabi to a 6-0 spurt, which resulted in a Baskonia timeout. The visitors quickly regrouped behind Moneke and Howard and stretched the lead to 17 on a Sedekerskis free throw. Marial Shayok made it 60-75 at the end of the quarter.
A triple by Blatt to start the fourth quarter was not a sign of things to come for Maccabi. Howard and Moneke kept Baskonia cruising. Khalifa Diop threw down a monster fastbreak slam and Howard’s sixth three-pointer took the lead to a game-high 19 points. A late flurry of points from Jokubaitis got Maccabi within 10 in the penultimate minute of the game, but that was as close as it would get as Baskonia preserved the victory.