Despite struggling from long range, the hosts made light of their home win against the German side
Unrelenting defense powered Baskonia to smooth win over ALBA
Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz stayed firmly on course to clinch a spot in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs after a sound all-round performance gave the Basque club a comfortable 88-71 home win over ALBA Berlin on Friday.
Baskonia thrived from ironclad defense from start to finish, limiting the visitors to just 19-of-40 from two-point territory and 7-of-26 from downtown, with Codi Miller-McIntyre producing a mature performance to lead the way with 14 points, 10 assists and 4 rebounds.
The playmaker pulled all the strings on the offensive end while he also played a major part on defense, complementing Matt Costello’s effort as the big man racked up 8 points, 9 rebounds and 4 blocks. Still, Miller-McIntyre stressed there was something left to be desired in Baskonia’s performance.
“I am very happy that we won, that’s the most important thing,” he said in a flash post-game interview. “We made a lot of mistakes on defense. We had a lot of turnovers, too, and we’ve got to clean that up if we are going to make a run for the playoffs.”
Making up for an off night from deep
Baskonia shot 7-of-27 from three-point range, with its top scorer Markus Howard going 2-of-8 for just 8 points, all of which came in the second half.
However, the hosts sank 27-of-35 from inside the arc and dished out 23 assists, compensating for 11 turnovers while also forced 12 from misfiring ALBA.
Costello resembled a wall in Baskonia’s paint and he acknowledged that the hosts needed to step up in the second half after allowing ALBA to trim an 18-point deficit early in the second quarter to just 42-34 at halftime.
“They’ve got some really physical bigs and we tried to take them on as best we could,” the 30-year-old Costello commented. “We lost our intensity a little bit in the second quarter, but overall we played a good game. We locked down on defense in the second half and we are grateful for the huge support we got from our fans.”
It was a welcome win for Baskonia after a 111-96 setback at Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul in the previous round, while the result piled more misery on ALBA after last week’s comprehensive 71-106 home rout by Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv.
Nonetheless, ALBA boss Israel Gonzalez put on a brace face after his team was brushed aside by Baskonia: “We made a good effort and were able to get back into the game several times. We just have to keep fighting whenever we step out on the court.”