FC Barcelona used the last 5 minutes of play on Friday to complete a perfect double-round week with a 96-84 home win over Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz. Barca's fifth victory in six games left it with a 7-3 record in a group behind league-leading Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, while Baskonia dropped back to 5-5.
Barca closes ranks late to top Baskonia
The final score was deceptive as a game-long series of ties and lead changes saw Baskonia still within 81-79 with under 6 minutes left. That's when Cory Higgins appeared for Barca with 3 three-pointers in under 2 minutes to suddenly make it a double-digit margin from which Baskonia could not recover. Jan Vesely led the winners with 18 points and Higgins had 11 of his 17 in those last 6 minutes. Oscar Da Silva added 11 for Barca. Markus Howard led Baskonia with 25 points while Matt Costello and Pierria Henry had 13 each.
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Both teams rained three-points until Howard's first put Baskonia up 10-11 and his second, in transition, forced a Barca timeout at 15-18. It remained as close as possible with they started shooting inside, too, as Darius Thompson's layup and a fall-away buzzer-beater by Vesely meant a 22-22 tie after one quarter. Higgins and Alex Abrines converted three-point plays as Barca seized a 32-27 edge early in the second. Da Silva's corner triple provided the high lead until then, 35-27, but Costello soon trimmed it to 39-37. Da Silva struck again but Howard matched him acrobatically at 44-42. Points kept dropping as Howard's fourth triple made it 46-45. Baskonia would tie it up 47-47 on Henry's runner, but Nicolas Laprovittola's triple and a buzzer-beating dunk by Da Silva let the hosts hit the lockers ahead by 52-48.
The teams traded buckets until Daulton Hommes hit from deep at 58-55 soon after the break. Henry's scoring and dishing kept Baskonia within 63-60 despite Sertac Sanli's triple for Barca. Rokas Giedraitis and Costello scored inside for a new Baskonia lead, 63-64. Four more lead changes followed before Laprovittola suddenly broke through for back-to-back triples to push Barca in front 73-66. Vesely and Costello traded three-point plays for a 76-73 scoreboard after 30 minutes. Howard tied the score twice early in the fourth but Nikola Kalinic fed Tomas Satoransky for a dunk at 81-78. Higgins came out of nowhere with back-to-back triples to suddenly match the high lead thus far, 87-79 with 4:29 to play. Higgins busted another at 90-80 that was a bridge too far for Baskonia.