Regular Season
Round 21 of 34
Group Regular Season
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A record-breaking night at Buesa Arena
Stats
3 Mins read
Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz needed overtime to beat Anadolu Efes Istanbul 114-111 at Buesa Arena in Round 21 on Friday night. Several club records were set and matched in this instant classic.
Both teams combined for 225 points, a new season high. Until Friday, the highest number of combined points in a Turkish Airlines EuroLeague game this season was 203, which came when Baskonia beat Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv 116-87 in Round 6. It is also the second-best combined scoring mark in EuroLeague history. Fortitudo Bologna and Panathinaikos combined for 232 points on January 14, 2004, with the Greens prevailing 114-118 behind 29 points from Jaka Lakovic.
Efes tied its all-time scoring record against Baskonia, too. It had previously scored 111 points against Baskonia at Buesa Arena on April 1, 2021. The outcome was much different back then, as Efes beat Baskonia 101-111, also in overtime.
Darius Thompson set a new Baskonia record by dishing 16 assists in this game. It is also a EuroLeague season high, as his teammate Pierria Henry had previously dished 13 assists against Virtus Segafredo Bologna in Round 15. Baskonia's previous record was also 13 assists, shared by Henry, Shane Larkin, Marcelinho Huertas and Elmer Bennett.
Thompson's 16 assists are tied for the eighth-best mark in EuroLeague history, and it is the highest total in a EuroLeague game since Facundo Campazzo, then of Real Madrid, tied the all-time record of 19 against ALBA Berlin on February 6, 2020.
Rokas Giedraitis had a surprising rebounding night that surely no one saw it coming. His previous career-best mark was 9 rebounds against Panathinaikos Athens earlier this season. Against Efes, Giedraitis pulled down twice as many rebounds as his previous best, grabbing 18. He is the third player to record 18 rebounds this season, after Youssoupha Fall and Walter Tavares. What's more, it is the second-best rebounding total in club history, as Victor Alexander pulled down 19 rebounds against Virtus Bologna in Game 1 of the 2001 EuroLeague Finals.
Baskonia matched a club record with 31 assists. It is the third time that Baskonia has reached his mark, having previously got that many against Khimki Moscow Region in 2019 and against Virtus earlier this season.
Matt Costello had 33 points against Efes, a new career high. With that number, he tied the best scoring night of a Baskonia player this season, as Marcus Howard previously had 33 points against Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade. He was a bit behind the best scoring night in the EuroLeague this season, though, as Lorenzo Brown of Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv got 36 points against FC Bayern Munich. As for Baskonia's all-time record, Arvydas Macijauskas scored 40 points against LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne on December 17, 2003.
Not only did Baskonia's fans enjoy a memorable win against the reigning back-to-back champs, but it was a night that will remain in the history books for a long time.
