AS Monaco improved its chances of reaching the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs by downing Bitci Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz 78-68 at home on Friday.
Monaco downs Baskonia, 78-68

Monaco improved to 13-13 in the standings while Baskonia dropped to 11-16 and is all but mathematically out of chances to make it to the next round. Will Thomas led the winners with 16 points. Dwayne Bacon added 14 while Alpha Diallo and Donta Hall each had 10 for Monaco. Alec Peters led Baskonia with 15 points while Jayson Granger added 13. Simone Fontecchio and Peters stepped up early to give Baskonia a 18-19 lead after 10 minutes. Hall and Bacon rescued Monaco and Diallo made the hosts get a double-digit game, 42-32, at halftime. Diallo and Mike James helped the hosts get a 57-36 margin. Peters and Granger managed to bring Baskonia within 65-58 early in the fourth quarter. Leo Westermann and Thomas made sure to stop Baskonia's comeback, leading Monaco to a well-deserved home win.
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Donatas Motiejunas got Monaco going with a corner triple and matched Fontecchio's fallaway jumper with a jump hook. Will Thomas beat the shot clock buzzer for a 7-2 Monaco lead. Matt Costello stepped up with back-to-back dunks for Baskonia, to which Peters and Steven Enoch added baskets for the visitors' first lead, 9-10. Fontecchio came up with a four-point play and Baldwin matched Hall's put-back slam with a driving layup at 13-16. Hall and Paris Lee combined on 5 points but Peters answered from the arc for an 18-19 Baskonia lead after 10 minutes.
Bacon hit a triple early in the second quarter. Jayson Granger answered with a six-meter jumper which Leo Westermann capped with a floater for a 23-21 Monaco lead. Baldwin downed a mid-range shot, Hall answered with a put-back layup and Lee's driving layup boosted the hosts' margin to 27-23. Bacon and Lee kept pacing Monaco and Hall took over with another put-back dunk, good for a 33-27 lead. Thomas nailed a jumper and Mike James struck from downtown but Baldwin kept Baskonia within 38-31. Diallo soon hit a jumper that made it a double-digit game, 42-32, at halftime.
Diallo matched Enoch's floater with a coast-to-coast layup and James boosted the hosts' lead to 46-34. Diallo kept pacing Monaco with consecutive tip-ins that broke the game open, 50-34, making Baskonia call timeout. Thomas scored low and Motiejunas added a power layup to make it an 18-point game, 54-36. Bacon and Granger traded three-pointers, then James banked in a close shot for a 59-39 Monaco lead. Granger insisted from beyond the arc and Tadas Sedekerskis scored around the basket to keep Baskonia within 59-44. Granger followed Peters's put-back basket with a buzzer-beating triple that got the guests even closer, 61-49, at halftime.
Thomas scored off the baseline early in the fourth quarter. A red-hot Granger scored in penetration, Peters followed a six-meter jumper with a close basket and Vanja Marinkovic added a bomb from beyond the arc, forcing Monaco to stop the game at 65-58. Diallo rescued the hosts with his third tip-in of the night and James scored in penetration to give Monaco fresh air at 69-60. Marinkovic took over with a fastbreak layup that Westermann bettered with a triple. Thomas scored twice in the paint to seal the outcome, 76-62, with over 2 minutes left, giving Monaco fans plenty of time to celebrate an important home victory!