The Zvezda big man's historic night on the offensive glass at Buesa Arena was overshadowed by the hosts' lethal long-range artillery.
Sharpshooting Baskonia wrecked Luka Mitrovic’s historic night
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Regular Season
Round 13 of 34
Group Regular Season
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Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz celebrated a dramatic 87-85 home win over Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade on the back of effervescent long-range shooting, which bleached out a valiant effort from the visiting team’s big man, Luka Mitrovic.
The hosts shot 17-of-36 from downtown to subdue Zvezda, which nearly forced a dramatic late twist when Rokas Giedraitis saw his tough three-point shot trickle out of the rim with 6 seconds left.
Giedraitis produced his best performance in a Zvezda jersey since he joined the club from Baskonia during the off-season, nailing a game-high 24 points to go with 6 boards, but the plaudits as far the visiting team goes belonged to Mitrovic, who racked up 8 points and 16 rebounds.
A historic feat for Luka Mitrovic
No fewer than 11 of those boards were on the offensive end, tying the second-highest offensive rebound tally in more than 5,000 EL games this century. The only player ahead of Mitrovic in that department is fellow Serbian Nikola Milutinov, who grabbed a staggering 16 in a single game during the 2020-21 season in Europe’s premier club basketball competition.
Never a prolific scorer but always a menacing presence in the paint at both ends of the floor throughout his career, Mitrovic again worked tirelessly all night, but his effort was left unrewarded as Zvezda once again fell short in the home straight.
Three-pointers made the difference
The visitors played catch-up all night but, in the end, the hosts’ superior long-rage firepower dashed their hopes of earning the first road win of the season, as Sedekerskis, Markus Howard and Nikos Rogkavopoulos combined for 12-of-16 from beyond the three-point arc.
Player of the game Sedekerskis scored a career-high 18 point to go with
8 rebounds, while the current Baskonia team captain made sure to heap praise on his Lithuanian compatriot and former Baskonia team captain Giedraitis after the game.
“We couldn’t stop Rokas today. He came back home, he spent three amazing seasons at Baskonia and scored 24 points against us,” Sedekerskis said in a flash post-game interview, before joking: “I’ll have to have a serious talk with him.”
Two teams going in different directions
The outcome delighted Baskonia head coach Dusko Ivanovic, who took over at the club for a fourth stint in charge earlier this season shortly after he was sacked by Zvezda following a 1-3 start in the EuroLeague.
Ivanovic, who had won three Spanish league titles with Baskonia in as many previous spells in charge, proved again that he and the club were a match made in heaven as he quickly steadied the ship after taking over from Joan Penarroya.
Ivanovic has now engineered a 7-1 run that has improved Baskonia’s record to 8-5, while Zvezda dropped to 4-9 in yet another disappointing week for head coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos, who took over from Ivanovic.
Sfairopoulos is now 3-6 with Zvezda following Wednesday’s 85-81 reverse at Valencia Basket, with that defeat being literally a carbon copy of the one at Baskonia as Zvezda tied the game in the final minute but failed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
“Both teams demonstrated quality,” Ivanovic said “We kept fighting to stay ahead, but Zvezda have a lot of talent and many options in the big guys and shooters. We were lucky tonight as we’d have lost the game if Rokas had made the last shot.”
Sfairopoulos lamented another missed opportunity; “We made a great effort in the second half, we came back twice, but once again small details decided the winner.”