EA7 Emporio Armani Milan came up with an inspired performance in registering an 89-83 home victory over Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz to snap a five-game losing streak. Milan shut down the EuroLeague’s number-one offense just enough for its first victory of 2023, which improved its record to 7-15.
Milan slows down Baskonia to snap 5-game skid
Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot paced five Milan players in double figures with 17 points, Johannes Voigtmann had 16 points, Billy Baron scored 11 points and new addition Shabazz Napier chipped in 10 points and 3 assists in his EuroLeague debut. Baskonia dropped to 12-10 including losing its last four games on the road. Darius Thompson led the way with 19 points and Markus Howard and Rokas Giedraitis both had 18 points in the losing effort.
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Milan took an early 8-2 lead but Thompson poured in 10 points to help Baskonia go ahead 12-14. Milan held Baskonia to just 1 three-pointer over the final 4 minutes and Stefano Tonut had 4 points for an 18-17 lead after 10 minutes. Milan’s defense held strong and allowed Luwawu-Cabarrot to score 4 points for a 28-21 lead. Matthew Costello sparked the comeback and the game was even 30-30. Voigtmann hit 2 three-pointers and the hosts were up 40-34 at the break.
Six points from Voigtmann helped Milan increase the lead to 46-37. Steven Enoch came up big at the other end in a 2-11 run to tie the game again 48-48. The later stages of the third quarter saw six lead changes and Milan led 62-60 after 30 minutes. The game remained tight until Voigtmann added 2 three-pointers in the fourth quarter and the lead grew to 81-74 with under 3 minutes left. Baskonia was held to 2 points in 2 minutes and could not make up the rest of the deficit.