Baskonia “cleaned” Villerban with an unimaginable performance by McIntyre

With a good performance in the second half, a record assist from McIntyre with 20 and a “double-double” from Moneke, Baskonia defeated Villerban 94-80 in Vitoria for the 26th game of the Euroleague.

Villerban found the solutions inside the opponent’s racket and took a 4-0 lead, but Baskonia responded with consecutive three-pointers, one by Rogavopoulos, for the Basques to win 6-4. Then, correct selections from both rackets kept the tie alive, Costelloe’s triple made it -1 for Dusko Ivanovic’s team and Dieth’s two runs +2 and +3. Baskonia’s run reached 5-0 and Lee 23-20 at the end of the first quarter.

Monecke’s back-to-back points at the start of the second period made it +6 for Baskonia and Marinkovic’s three-pointer made it +9 for the Basques. A 4-0 run by the home team brought the +11 lead by the Serbian center and the regional Basques kept the difference in double digits. Gaatsov and Loverne with a 5-0 run dropped to -6 and the French responded to the three points of the Basques for -6. At 46-39, a 6-0 run by the Basques with many solutions inside the opposing racket made it 52-39 at the conclusion of the half. Baskonia had 10/15 three-pointers, 4/4 shots and 18 rebounds, while Miller-McIntyre had 12 assists. Villeurbanne 9/11 shots.

Baskonia maintained +11 to +13 at the start of the third period, but with a 5-0 run Baskonia dropped to -10. A 4-0 run by Baskonia made it +14 for the Vitoria team and Howard started a scoring streak and assisted on +11 with +13 and Miller-McIntyre dishing out assists. Villerban found the solutions in the Spanish racket and reduced to -9, but Howard’s three-pointer made it 71-59 at the end of the quarter.