The French scorer stopped Virtus's comeback at the right time to lead Baskonia to a comfortable win
Luwawu-Cabarrot stepped up when needed to lead Baskonia over Virtus
Game Report
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 9 of 38
Regular Season
Baskonia Vitoria-GasteizBKN
8776
Virtus BolognaVIR
Overview
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By winning three consecutive games, Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz has bounced back from its worst start ever in the EuroLeague and is now 3-6 in the standings. It showed great strength again, confirming that its defense has been much better since it added Kobi Simmons and regained the services of Rodions Kurucs, who msised time with an injury. After allowing 96.0 points in those six initial losses, opponents have been held to just 77.3 points on average since then.
Baskonia managed to get the win despite Sailou Niang's career-best effort. Niang was all over the place, amassing 18 points plus 12 rebounds for a PIR of 35 - all career-highs. Niang made 6 of 8 two-pointers (75.0% 2FG) but his teammates combined for just 11 of 30 shots inside the arc (36.7% 2FG). Still, Virtus managed to make a push and when the going got tough, Baskonia went back to its regular go-to guy to make things happen on offense.
Indeed, Baskonia led from start to finish but it was far from being a walk in the park. Virtus rallied from a 13-point deficit to get within 59-57 late in the third quarter. Until then, Baskonia kept the lead due to a balanced offense, but when a go-to guy was needed, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot stepped up to make the difference in the game.
Matteo Spagnolo and Markquis Nowell sparked a game-changing 17-1 run in which Luwawu-Cabarrot did a little bit of everything. He found Nowell for a wide open three-pointer from the left wing, buried his own shot from downtown off the dribble and made a pair of free throws. All of a sudden, Baskonia led 75-59 and was well on its way to a third consecutive win for the first time since December 8, 2023.
"I'm just here to play and help the team in any way that I can. I'm trying to make stops, get rebounds, communicate and be a leader. Whenever I score points, it's just the team looking for me and them having confidence in me just making the shots," Luwawu-Cabarrot said.
"We finally figured it out. We know we play at home. Of course, we are going to have more energy. We have to stay focused. I think those three wins are amazing. We have to keep building on this. We have tough road games next week and have to stay focused and use these games we had at home to stay strong and keep building."
Luwawu-Cabarrot scored half of his 16 points in the fourth quarter. He has scored 16 points or more in all nine games this season. Last season, he reached the 16-point mark four times in 26 games. Hamidou Diallo added 14 and detonated one of the best alley-oop dunks of the season off a no-look pass from Nowell to throw it down with great authority.
"We're starting to figure it out, starting to play together, starting to understand the defensive concepts and we are leaving it all on the floor. I mean, that's what's most important, leave it all on the court and that's what we're doing every night right now," Diallo said after the game. "We didn't have a full training camp with our whole team. We still have guys injured. We are just battling and clawing every night. Happy to get a victory, but we are back to work".
Baskonia has proved to be strong at home and is now ready to test its current momentum on the road. It faces Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv in Round 10 in Sofia, Bulgaria on Tuesday, November 11. A couple of days later, Baskonia goes against Maccabi Rapyd Tel Aviv in Belgrade, Serbia, in a rematch of the 2005 EuroLeague Championship Game, more than 20 years later.
