Baskonia was in top gear when it mattered
Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz lost three quarters out of four in its 95-90 home win over Panathinaikos Athens, but coming out on top 31-15 in the second period was enough for the Spanish side to secure an all-important victory which kept it on course to reach the playoffs.
The hosts fired on all cylinders for 20 minutes or so after falling behind 21-10 early on, but then they took their foot off the gas when they were 60-40 up early in the third, allowing Panathinaikos to slash the deficit. However, the visitors never looked likely to force a late twist.
Exceptional shooting in the first half from inside the arc was the key to Baskonia’s win, having finished on 26 of 39 from two-point range to compensate for a relatively poor night from downtown, as they nailed a modest 9 of 31 three-point shots.
The Greens only hit 6-of-21 three-pointers and also struggled from the foul line (16 of 23), where Baskonia excelled (16 of 18). Just as crucially, Baskonia dished out 26 assists (16 in the first half) to Panathinaikos's 18, having also grabbed 6 boards more (39-33) and 11 of those rebounds were on the offensive end.
However, Baskonia head coach Joan Penarroya was quick to point out that it wasn’t all good: “We relaxed after going up by 20 points in the second half. We could have won by more points, in the second half we conceded 52 and we need to improve in defense.”
Matt Costello also had no excuses for a lapse that could have cost Baskonia had the visitors not ran out of time.
If we don’t play hard we are going to lose these games so we’ve got to figure it out,” he said. "We were up by 20 and then we decided to take our foot off the gas. Every team here can score.”
The selfless nature of Baskonia’s offense was perhaps best personified by shooting guard Darius Thompson, who dished out 10 assists before he scored his only 3 points of the game, netting his solitary shot from the floor and 1-of-2 free throws.
That allowed Markus Howard to finish on a game-high 24 points, however he struggled from the floor, going 2 of 11 from three-point range. He did sink 6 of 7 from inside the arc, though.
“I am glad we got the win against a good team but we can play a lot better,” Howard said after the game. “We had a big lead and then we let it up a little bit, so there are definitely things we can get better at and adjust.”