Chus Mateo's side is now on the edge of the play-in places
Real Madrid holds off Virtus to grab important win, 67-80

Real Madrid won on the road for the first time in over a month as it defeated Virtus Segafredo Bologna 67-80 in Round 29. With this result, Los Blancos’ postseason hopes were boosted as they improved to a 15-14 record, while the hosts fell to 7-22.
Dzanan Musa and Walter Tavares led the way with 13 points apiece for Real Madrid, with Mario Hezonja and Usman Garuba both scoring 10 points each, too. Virtus’s leading scorer was Matt Morgan with 11 points, followed by Rayjon Tucker with 10.
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After a back-and-forth start to the contest, with the score 8-8 four and a half minutes in, a 9-0 Real Madrid run capped by back-to-back scores by Usman Garuba allowed the visitors to take an 8-17 lead. Garuba had 7 of his team’s 17 points, and Dzanan Musa joined him on 7 points as the lead extended to 10-19. Real Madrid took its first double-digit lead following a score inside by Bruno Fernando and a triple by Facundo Campazzo, 12-14. That double-digit advantage was maintained in the remainder of the period, with Sergio Llull scoring his first points of the game to put Real Madrid 17-30 ahead with 15 seconds to go in the quarter.
Andres Feliz kept Real Madrid charging with two consecutive scores to start the second quarter, 17-34. Despite Virtus getting contributions from Toko Shengelia, Isaia Cordinier and Justin Holiday, a triple by Hezonja and another score by Feliz opened an 18-point lead at 23-41. Serge Ibaka entered the period scoreless, but he moved to 7 points with 1:42 remaining before halftime, then Hezonja netted inside to set a lead of 19 points, 29-48. After a pair of Cordinier free throws, it was 33-50 at the break.
It looked like things were only going to get worse for Virtus in the third quarter as a pair of free throws by Campazzo followed by a score inside by Tavares and a three by Garuba swelled the lead to 22 points, 35-57. Tavares responded to Shengelia’s free throws to maintain that 22-point advantage, 37-59, but Virtus punched back thanks to back-to-back threes by Morgan and Andrejs Grazulis, 43-59. Morgan, who was scoreless in the opening 20 minutes, really came to the fore and made it a 13-point gap at 49-62. He then replied to Hezonja’s reverse layup with a coast-to-coast layup and the free throw that followed, 52-66, before Grazulis’s layup set a 54-68 score after 30 minutes.
Hezonja netted Real Madrid’s first 3 points of the final frame, but Morgan and Shengelia combined to make things interesting at 59-71. Grazulis’s jump hook got the deficit down to 11 points, 61-72, but Virtus could not trim the gap any further. Tavares’s layup and Musa’s two free throws gave the visitors breathing room at 61-76, and Tavares added 4 more points to his tally as Real Madrid ended up securing a 67-80 victory.