Madrid will play in the final four for the tenth time in the history of the modern Euroleague (since 2000). During this period, the royal club became the champion three times and lost in the final as many times. In total, “Real” has won the EuroLeague 11 times in the club’s history, including last year in Kaunas.
This year’s final four will take place in Berlin on May 24-26. In the semi-finals, Real will play against Barcelona or Olympiakos Piraeus. In this pair, Barca leads 2-1 after three matches.
Having lost the first two meetings of the series by double-digit differences, Baskonia was already behind 17:11 in the first quarter in the third match, but after 10 minutes the scoreboard showed equality – 22:22.
In the second quarter, the Basques exploded with five three-pointers, and Markus Howard scored 11 points in the half. Vitoria’s basketball players were several times behind by double digits (37:27 and 52:42), but the Euroleague champions did not let their opponents go far and trailed only 52:56 at the halfway point of the match.
It is interesting that during the second half the teams scored a combined 64 points.
After the long break, Baskonia continued to rely on three-pointers, and the difference between the teams jumped to 10 points for the third time – 70:60. However, before the last quarter, “Real” responded with a 12:3 score and was already breathing down the opponents’ backs (72:73).
The Basques were able to shoot ahead at the start of the fourth quarter (80:75), but Chus Mateo asked for a one-minute break, and after that, “Real” responded with an impressive 13-0 run, after which the scoreboard showed the advantage of the guests (88:80).
But Baskonia didn’t break either. They continued to waste three-pointers like crazy, and responded to the “Real” section with their 8-2 run and got closer to 91-93.
However, the Basques could not finally break the momentum of the match, and Real made several last-minute saves to celebrate the victory in the 200-point game.
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In the last game of the season for the Basque club, Tadas Sedekerskis scored only 2 points (1/1 doubles, 0/1 triples), rebounded 4 balls, made one mistake and collected 6 utility points in 19 minutes.
The Basques hit as many as 16 of 37 long shots in this match, but Real attacked similarly, 13 of 33.
Baskonia: Markus Howard 29 (5/12 trg, 5 trg), Nikos Rogkavopoulos 18 (3/5 trg), Vanja Marinkovic (5/8 trg) and Codi Miller-McIntyre (7 rpg, 11 rez.) 17 each, Matthew Costello 11.
Real Madrid: Guerschon Yabusele 23 (7/8 doubles, 3/8 triples, 7 rebounds), Mario Hezonja 16 (4/10 triples), Gabriel Deck and Facundo Campazzo (8 rebounds) 13 each, Walter Tavares 12 (13 rebounds, 4 blocks).
