Virtus slows down Baskonia for important victory, 88-83

Virtus Segafredo Bologna grabbed an important victory in its fight to reach the playoffs, as it beat Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz 88-83 to improve to a 12-13 record. This was Virtus’s third win in the last four games. Baskonia’s road woes continued, however, as it fell to 13-12 and 3-10 away from Vitoria.
Milos Teodosic tallied 17 points and 7 assists, while Marco Belinelli scored 15 points on 5 three-pointers and Toko Shengelia added 12 points. For Baskonia, Rokas Giedraitis scored a season-high 25 points, and Daulton Hommes and Darius Thompson had 15 points apiece.
Teodosic had a strong start to the game with 6 points and an assist to help Virtus build an 11-5 lead. But, Giedraitis and Hommes tallied all 13 points in a 2-13 Baskonia run to pull ahead, 13-18. The duo scored all 19 points of their team's points in the first quarter, as the guests led 16-19. Baskonia remained ahead and had a 27-31 advantage when Virtus scored 6 straight points to pull back ahead, 33-31. The score was 44-41 at the break.
Mam Jaiteh stepped up in the third quarter at both ends and helped extend the cushion to 56-48. Markus Howard got hot with back-to-back three-pointers to tie the game at 58-58, before he added a four-point play. But Virtus scored the final 5 points of the quarter and was up 68-62 after 30 minutes. Awudu Abass was the next Virtus player to shine with 2 three-pointers and a block, as the cushion grew to 71-62. Giedraitis would not let his team go down without a fight, however, getting the deficit to 78-76. Yet, Teodosic stepped up with a three-pointer and 3 made free throws to extend the advantage to 84-76 with 85 seconds remaining. Virtus tried to push forward and win the tiebreaker, but Baskonia fought off that challenge.