The Spanish side went to Bologna and grabbed a vital Round 34 victory against Virtus
Howard, Baskonia 'excited and ready' for the postseason
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Regular Season
Round 34 of 34
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Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz emerged as the big winner on Friday night, pulling out a thrilling 91-95 road win at Virtus Segafredo Bologna.
With this victory, Baskonia clinched eighth place, which gives the team two chances in the Play-In Showdown to get one win and reach the playoffs. Virtus, on the other hand, dropped to 10th place in the standings and will need to win twice – on the road – to get into the playoffs.
Markus Howard stayed on fire
That's how big of a win it was, and it had one major star – Markus Howard – and several key contributors that made Baskonia's win possible.
Howard scored 21 of his 34 points in the second half, including 11 in the fourth quarter, and the visitors needed all of those because they were down 13 late in the second quarter and trailed by double digits in the third.
Yet, Baskonia ended up coming away as the winner. If that 91-95 score looks familiar, that's because Baskonia beat Real Madrid at WiZink Center last week by the exact same result. That night, Howard erupted for a joint career-high 35 points.
So, could there be something in those numbers? Probably not in any kind of supernatural way, but it is clear that Baskonia wanted a high-scoring game – and got it.
"We wanted to play fast and in the second half we played fast," Baskonia head coach Dusko Ivanovic explained. "But sometimes, [we played] too fast where we lost two or three balls. But I think we deserved to win this game."
Baskonia scored 31 points in the third quarter, which it won 21-31, and it outscored the hosts 38-51 after halftime.
Virtus boss Luca Banchi summed it up perfectly.
"It was difficult to stop their offense," he said. "We struggled and lost our focus in the game."
Other players made decisive plays, too
Howard scored the first 8 points of the third quarter to quickly erase a nine-point halftime deficit. But when Virtus pulled away to a 10-point margin once again, 64-54, it was Codi Miller-McIntyre who scored 8 straight points – and 10 in a span of only two and a half minutes – to put Baskonia up 67-69.
The hosts never led after that, but the game was incredibly close. Another run of points by Howard put the visitors ahead 83-90, their largest lead of the night, with 3:57 left in the game, but Virtus replied with a 7-0 run and entering the final minute had a possession to retake the lead.
But Baskonia made another defensive stop, one of many in the second half, then got the game-winning basket – a tip-in by Matt Costello with 32 seconds to go.
Costello had just 6 points, but not only did he made that tip-in, he made both free throws with 16.6 seconds to go to set a 91-94 score. He also came up big by pulling down 9 rebounds, dishing 4 assists, recording 2 steals and having 1 block.
Other major contributors for Baskonia were Vanja Marinkovic, who finished with 17 points, and Chima Moneke, who scored 11 of his 12 in the first half. He sat out the majority of the second half, but one has to wonder if Baskonia would have been able to overcome the deficit without Moneke, who had a pair of three-point plays in the final minute of the first half and was the sole reason Baskonia was down by 9 at halftime, rather than 13 or more points.
But, when Moneke was asked what made the difference, he had no doubt.
"Markus Howard, the best scorer in Europe," Moneke stated, praising his teammate who finished as the EuroLeague's top scorer with 19.4 points per game. "Everyone's talking about a few names, but no one is talking about him. The things he does on the court, nobody does it in the world."
Howard, who made 6-of-9 two-pointers and 5-of-13 threes, will be a major threat in the Play-In Showdown against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv. After all, Friday night was his fifth game of 30 points or more this season and his fourth in 2024.
"We are excited, we are still continuing to fight and we are playing for something," Howard said after his performance in Bologna. "To have the opportunity to play in the postseason, we are excited and ready to play."