The game was tight, but the American gave his team the boost it needed in the second quarter
Markus Howard broke out of his slump to fire Baskonia past Maccabi
Article
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 26 of 34
Group Regular Season
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The last month has been tough for Markus Howard.
Turkish Airlines EuroLeague fans have grown accustomed to seeing the Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz guard put up big numbers on offense, making jaw-dropping three-pointers with relative ease, but that hasn’t been the case of late.
Howard came into Friday night’s clash against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv having scored a total of 14 points across his last four games: 1 point in Round 22, 6 in Round 23, 4 in Round 24, and 3 in Round 25. The last time he netted a double-digit number of points came back on January 2, when he had 10 in a 73-75 loss to Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade before missing Rounds 20 and 21 with an injury.
The first quarter of Baskonia’s game with Maccabi looked like it was going to follow a similar pattern for Howard, who sat on zero points after missing his only three-point attempt in 4:41 minutes on the floor. But, in true Markus Howard fashion, all it took was one shot to fall for his confidence to return.
After Jake Cohen opened the second quarter with a triple to give Maccabi a 22-26 lead, following a John DiBartolomeo steal on Howard down the other end, the Baskonia marksman quickly made amends by draining an off-balanced three from the EuroLeague logo, leading to a huge roar from the Buesa Arena crowd. The three-point festival continued, with David DeJulius knocking one down for Maccabi and Nikos Rogkavopoulos replying in kind for Baskonia, as the hosts trailed by one at 28-29.
Then, Howard did what he does best – make the impossible look possible. He converted another off-balanced three to give Baskonia the lead (31-29) before striking from deep again, this time in more conventional fashion, to open a five-point lead for Baskonia (34-29). In the space of two and a half minutes, the 25-year-old moved to 9 points and all seemed well.
As it turned out, those two baskets turned out to be crucial as Baskonia never trailed again in the final 27 minutes of the contest. Howard sat on 15 points on 5 made threes entering crunch time, but he still had the chance to have one more big play.
Maccabi had reduced Baskonia’s 17-point lead (78-61) to just six (85-79) with 2:48 minutes to play, but Howard got the shooter’s roll on a turnaround jumper to restore an eight-point margin (87-79) with 1:06 minutes left and effectively put the eventual 89-82 win on ice.
Baskonia has now won its last three games at Buesa Arena, and the return to form of Howard should make coach Pablo Laso’s side a serious contender to reach the Play-In Showdown once the EuroLeague returns from its hiatus on February 27.