


Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz stayed in the race to make it to the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs by downing LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne 120-100 at Buesa Arena in Round 33 on Thursday. Baskonia improved to 18-15 and is still reliant on its own results to reach the postseason, regardless of any scores tomorrow and in Round 34. ASVEL dropped to 8-25 and is on a 12-game losing streak.
Darius Thompson paced the winners with a 23-point, 12-assist double-double. Rokas Giedraitis added 19 points, Maik Kotsar had 15 and Daulton Hommes got 12, while Arturs Kurucs and Vanja Marinkovic each contributed 10 for Baskonia, which became just the third team to reach 120 points in EuroLeague history. Jonah Mathews led ASVEL with 25 points. Nando De Colo chipped in with 19, David Lighty and Dee Bost each had 12, and Charles Kahudi got 11.
Kahudi sank a triple and Lighty scored down low to give ASVEL an early 3-5 lead. Thompson and Kotsar rescued Baskonia, then Giedraitis's three-pointer boosted his team's lead to 17-11. Steven Enoch dunked twice and Markus Howard soon made it a double-digit game, 30-18. Mathews brought ASVEL within 32-24 after 10 minutes.
Yves Pons and De Colo stepped up for ASVEL and Retin Obasohan's layup made it a 2-point game, 38-36. Giedraitis and Hommes combined for all points in a 7-0 run, and Dani Diez struck from downtown for a 52-44 Baskonia lead. Mathews and De Colo got ASVEL as close as 55-51 at halftime.
Marinkovic scored around the basket after the break, Hommes struck from beyond the arc and Kotsar's alley-oop layup made ASVEL call a timeout at 66-54. Giedraitis buried a couple of three-pointer and Hommes added another one to keep Baskonia out of trouble, 81-69, after 30 minutes.
Pons and Obasohan gave ASVEL hope. 90-80, early in the fourth quarter. Marinkovic sank a three-pointer and Matt Costello added a powerful layup for a 95-82 scoreline in Baskonia's favor. Thompson and Kotsar allowed Baskonia to seal the outcome, 108-91, as ASVEL did not recover in the final four minutes.