Baskonia snapped its eight-game losing streak by downing reigning champion Efes 87-74 at home on Tuesday in a makeup game from Round 20.
Baldwin, Costello lead Baskonia to first win in 2022



Baskonia improved to 8-19 in the standings while Efes dropped to 14-13. Wade Baldwin led the winners with 20 points and 11 assists. Simone Fontecchio added 15 points, Sander Raieste scored 11 and Matt Costello and Rokas Giedraitis each had 10 for Baskonia. Costello added 10 rebounds for a double-double. Vasilije Micic paced Efes with 23 points and Shane Larkin added 21. Efes led 36-43 at halftime, but Baldwin scored 9 points in a 13-2 run that gave Baskonia a 62-58 lead at the end of the third quarter and Baldwin and Raieste made the difference in the fourth.
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Costello got Baskonia going with an alley-oop layup, igniting a 7-0 run in which Fontecchio followed a jumper with a three-pointer. Adrien Moerman stepped up with a jump hook, which Alec Peters erased with a turnaround jumper. Tibor Pleiss took over with a dunk, Micic added a driving layup and Larkin took over with back-to-back three-pointers for a 14-12 score. Rokas Giedraitis banked in a floater and Baldwin dunked for a 19-13 Baskonia edge. Larkin hit two more from downtown and Dunston made an off-balance shot in an 0-8 run that gave Efes its first lead, 19-21. Steven Enoch made a jump hook that a red-hot Larkin bettered with his fifth triple for a 22-24 Efes edge after 10 minutes.
Baldwin made a jumper early in the second quarter and Tadas Sedekerskis added a fastbreak layup for a 26-24 Baskonia lead. Arturs Kurucs struck from beyond the arc, but Micic followed a triple with a driving layup and soon put Efes in charge, 29-31. Micic fed Singleton for a wide-open three-pointer and Larkin improved on Enoch's jump hook with his sixth three-pointer, boosting Efes's lead to 31-37. Vanja Marinkovic joined the three-point shootout and Giedraitis added a fastbreak slam to bring Baskonia within 36-37. Micic buried another triple and Dunston also struck from downtown for a 36-43 Efes lead at halftime.
Fontecchio buried a rainbow jumper and added a floater soon after the break. Larkin downed a three-pointer in transition and Micic followed that with a close basket for a 40-48 Efes lead. Baldwin tried to change things for Baskonia with 9 quick points in a 13-2 run highlighted by Giedraitis's corner three-pointer. Filip Petrusev scored twice around the basket but Costello and Giedraitis kept the hosts in charge, 60-54. Micic banked in a running shot and Moerman scored in penetration to make it a two-point game. Fontecchio gave Baskonia fresh air, 62-58, after 30 minutes.
Singleton struck from beyond the arc early in the fourth quarter. Raieste answered with a tip-in and Peters added a three-pointer to boost the margin to 67-61. Rodrigue Beaubois and Raieste joined the three-point shootout. Baldwin fed Enoch for a huge alley-oop slam and then buried a baseline jumper which a red-hot Raieste followed with a three-pointer that made it a double-digit lead, 78-68, with under 4 minutes left. Baldwin buried consecutive jumpers to seal the outcome, 82-70, in the next-to-last minute, as Efes never recovered.