Baskonia runs out of ideas in the final stretch

Monaco win at home by five points

The clash was very even, but the errors condemned Baskonia

The Baskonia bucket ran out of ideas in the final stretch of the duel against him Monaco for the Euroleague and lost 79-74 in a very even match in which they failed to maintain the outside shooting percentage of other duels and accumulated eight errors from the free kick.

It was the third consecutive defeat for the azulgranas, who turned the game around in the third quarter and went ahead in the last ten minutes, but could not maintain their lead against the Monegasque team, who found in Elie Okobo -author of 22 points- the alternative to the bad day of Mike James.

The great party of Pierrià Henry, with 17 points and 7 assistsand Matt Costello’s fight (18 PIR credits) were clouded by the difficulties to score that several Barça players had such as Markus Howard, Vanja Marinkovic and Rokas Giedraitis, who between the three managed three points.

another of the positive notes of the group from Vitoria was the role of Dani Díezwho kept his team with numerous positive actions at various times in the game.

The duel began with a lot of rhythm and with many defensive changes by the two teams, which took advantage of the defensive imbalances. The premises began to punish to the Barcelona from the offensive rebound and achieved the first advantages in a clash with a lot of scoring.

The fouls began to harm to a Baskonia who saw how he was sanctioned with several personalwhile the first for the Monegasques was signaled in the 8th minute of the duel.

The turnovers were also an important handicap for the people from Vitoria who, however, went ahead in the first act with a tight 20-24, after a partial 0-10.

Baskonia improved with Pierrià Henry in commandwhich in turn marked the defensive level of the azulgranas, although again personal fouls marked the second round.

Elie Okobo He took the offensive baton from the Principality squad and put his team ahead, who looked for more options in their attacks.

The Lithuanian Donatas Montiejunas punished with two against two and Monaco, who found himself more comfortable on the floor to achieve the maximum difference so far in a tight duel, 43-36, where players like Yakuba Ouattara appeared.

The free kick prevented the Baskonistas from adding more points and the duel reached the break with a 48-45 score. Pierrià Henry was once again the Barça engine after going through the changing rooms and the Basque team regained control with a 0-8 scoreline against the haste of Mike James, who had not yet entered the game.

Monaco’s first basket five minutes into a second half in which Baskonia understood that they had to close ranks in their hoop.

Dani Díez was another fundamental factor in the game for Joan Peñarroya’s men, stealing the ball and scoring outside to keep his team ahead, despite the fact that the free kick was an important ballast to open up a gap. The fight on the rebound allowed the people from Vitoria to enter the last act ahead, 58-63.

The defenses tightened and both teams found it difficult to score. Every point was sweating and while the locals added from the outside, Henry found Kotsar in the paint.

Five points from Elie Okobo turned the game around with a 73-71 lead with 1:52 to go, after several key errors by a Baskonia that did not have clear ideas in hot moments and failed to score a basket from the field in the last three minutes, until Jordan Loyd signed the local victory from the free kick, 79-74.