A fine team effort coupled with Markus Howard’s shooting prowess made up for missing the influential power forward
Battling Baskonia compensated for Chima Moneke’s absence
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Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz was dealt a massive blow when Chima Moneke, one of the team’s pillars, was ruled out of his team’s decisive play-in clash against Virtus Segafredo Bologna with an ankle injury. However, the Spanish side dealt with it superbly to win the crunch contest 89-77 and reach the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs, having booked a mouth-watering clash with top-seeded Real Madrid.
Moneke, who has averaged 13.6 points and 6.6 rebounds this season, twisted his left ankle during Baskonia’s 113-85 drubbing at the hands of Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv in the first round of the Play-In Showdown, with head coach Dusko Ivanovic confirming after the loss that the big man would be unavailable for the do-or-die game at home to Virtus.
Prolific guard Markus Howard led the scoring charge against Virtus with a game-high 28 points, but it was the secondary unit that made light of Moneke’s absence with effervescent performances which allowed Baskonia to dominate in every department.
A captain’s performance
With Howard making a jittery start, captain Tadas Sedekerskis got the home team going as he scored Baskonia’s opening 9 points and totaled 11 in the first quarter. Even more importantly, he made his presence felt all over as he played outstanding defense, being the glue that held it all together as he spent a game-high 35:45 minutes on the court.
Sedekerskis, who amassed 16 points and 7 rebounds after shooting 6 of 8 from the floor, earned the player of the game accolade for his immense contribution and he was understandably elated after Baskonia clinched a long-awaited berth in the business end of the competition.
“I’ve been here for 11 years, I am the team captain and this game was special for me because we hadn’t made the playoffs for several years,” the 26-year-old Lithuanian forward said in his post-game comments. “We’re so happy because we know it’s super-important for the city and the fans.”
Costello and Rogkavopoulos stepped up, too
Big man Matt Costello also came up big with 19 points and 5 rebounds, having nailed 3 crucial shots from downtown while he also kept counterpart Toko Shengelia subdued for the lion’s share of the contest.
Costello’s effort was complemented by that of Nikos Rogkavopoulos, the silent water who runs deep. The Greek power forward undermined any attempt by Virtus to get back into the game after Baskonia had carved out a 72-57 lead at the end of the third quarter.
With Moneke watching from the sidelines, Rogkavopoulos amassed 9 points and 7 rebounds as Baskonia racked up a total of 37 boards, 15 of them on the offensive end. Howard heaped praise on his teammates after they were treated to a standing ovation at the final buzzer by Baskonia’s joyous home crowd.
“We’re just so happy for our fans, they deserve it because they’ve been with us the entire season,” said Howard. “Our energy was the key tonight, the group that started as well as the guys who came off the bench. We are just hitting our stride and we’re still waiting to play our best basketball.”
Following a shock 64-67 win at Anadolu Efes Istanbul in the first play-in round, Virtus might have had high hopes of staging another upset upon the news that Moneke would be sidelined.
The Italian side, which had punched above its weight during the regular season longer than most pundits had expected, saw its campaign end in an anti-climax as a 2-8 run in the home stretch robbed it of a direct playoff berth and confined it to the play-in.
Virtus overpowered Efes as the Italian side briefly rekindled the kind of form which saw it emerge as the surprise package of the season early on, but beating Baskonia turned out to be a tall order, despite Moneke being reduced to a mere spectator.