Baskonia extends its January slope in Milan
MADRID, 31 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Cazoo Baskonia added a new setback this January in the Regular Phase of the Euroleague 2022-2023 by losing this Tuesday 89-83 in the visit to the Mediolanum Forum, home of the bottom of the competition, an EA7 Emporio Armani Milano, in front of the one who showed his current doubts.
The Baskonia team ended up in great tune in 2022, but in the new year it is going through a crisis of play and results that resulted in the Lombard capital in the fifth defeat in the last six European games, a setback that further distances it from the top positions of the table and aggravated by being against the last classified, who had not yet won in 2023.
Baskonia left behind the tremendous offensive power shown last week against Efes at the start in the locker room. Armani Milan did not take advantage of it too much, but they did take the game to a field where they can move better given their problems this season. The bad game from the triple (8/32) and on the rebound (39 to 26) weighed down a team where Darius Thompson (19 points) and Rokas Giedraitis (18) stood out.
Joan Peñarroya was finally able to count on Markus Howard, but his main scorer was not entirely accurate, with a discreet 2/10 from the triple. Thompson was better, especially in the opening quarter, where he contributed 10 of his team’s 17 points, where there was also room for the debut of the recently signed Max Heidegger.
The Baskonista team was unable to overcome their offensive problems in the second quarter, where they continued to struggle to score, except in the figure of Matt Costello, who took over from Thompson with 8 points, but without much company.
This meant that Ettore Messina’s men, without much fanfare, but moving the ball well in many cases and dominating the rebound, could open up the first lead (28-21). Peñarroya stopped him and his team improved somewhat at the back to recover the deficit, but came from behind at halftime (40-34) after a good run of hits from the three-pointer by an ex like Johannes Voigtmann.
The time in the changing rooms did not bring an initial awakening for Baskonia and Ettore Messina’s men once again threatened to break away (46-37). There, the clock rang and the team from Vitoria began to ‘plug in’ at the offensive level, now led by Rokas Giedraitis.
The Lithuanian forward contributed 10 points in this third quarter, with two triples, and found good accompaniment inside Steven Enoch, who added another 7 in a good ten offensive minutes (26 points) for the visitors, with the first triple also from Markus Howard.
However, Armani Milan did not let go and continued ahead (62-60) for the final quarter. A ‘2 1’ from Thompson put the visitors back in the lead (64-65) before Luwawu-Cabarro, Voigtmann and Giedraitis exchanged three-pointers to leave everything even (72-72).
But the final stretch was adverse to Baskonia. The German pivot once again showed his good hand from the outside and the second plays caused a new local takeoff that no longer found a response from the team from Vitoria.
–RESULT: ARMANI MILAN, 89 – CAZOO BASKONIA, 83 (40-34, at halftime).
ARMANI MILAN: Baron (11), Hall (6), Luwawu-Cabarrot (17), Hines (10) and Voigtmann (16) –starting five– Davies (9), Ricci (4), Nappier (10) and Tonut (6).
CAZOO BASCONY: Howard (18), Thompson (19), Giedraitis (18), Hommes (2) and Kotsar (-) –starting quintet–; Costello (12), Enoch (7), Marinkovic (7), Kurucs (-) and Heidegger (-).
— PARTIALS: 18-17, 22-17, 22-26 and 27-23.
–REFEREES: Belosevic, Vilius and Cici. No deleted.
–PABELLÓN: Milan Forum.
