Euroleague – rooms – working day 1

The Euroleague champion and leader of the regular phase showed its credentials to sweep Baskonia (90-74) in the first quarterfinal match, in the best of five games. Little history beyond Llull’s record of triples, which surpassed Juan Carlos Navarro’s record with 624 as the top scorer in the history of the tournament.
It took Baskonia a couple of minutes to get going until Rogkavopoulos made a pass at Tavares’ barrier and then scored a triple. Ivanovic’s team had a hard time finding space, with Markus Howard waiting his turn on the bench, while Madrid added more easily (13-8). Ivanovic became desperate faced with so much empty space in his defense and such a battery of white shooters. The one who squeezed it the most was Hezonja, author of three bingos from the perimeter. When it came time to run, Madrid showed more legs to take the first serious bite: 25-11. The formula worked so well for Chus Mateo that he didn’t make a single change until almost seven minutes in. Just a few free throws from Howard gave the visitors some respite before the first break (26-17).
Howard himself resumed the exchange with a triple, the switch he needed to connect (another success shortly after), and Costello crushed the white ring. Baskonia tried to raise the temperature in their zone, but there are few locks against the passes of Sergio RodrÃguez, a player who sees gaps where there are none. The champion distributed the efforts and the shots, and the challenger had already surrendered to the arms of his star, injured in a fall. Some runs by the Vitoria group, without opportunities for Madrid’s second plays, caused a 0-7 to inject some excitement (42-32) when the lead had stretched to 17 points. Mateo played back his starting towers, Yabusele and Tavares, to leave things in their place after the break: 48-37.
Campazzo on the outside and Tavares on the inside struck first in the second half. Musa stretched the gap to 19 points (56-37) against a Baskonia that was once again left dry for more than three minutes. The difference was very evident between the defending champion and the last team to buy the ticket for the quarterfinals, Howard missing and tied up. On the Madrid side there was cake for everyone.
Madrid entered the last season with their homework written (70-53) and were able to let themselves be carried to the shore. There was no more resistance from Baskonia. This Thursday, on the same stage, second chapter of the series.
REAL MADRID, 90; BASKONIA, 74
Real Madrid: Campazzo (10), Musa (16), Hezonja (9), Yabusele (7), Tavares (8) -initial team-; Llull (8), Sergio RodrÃguez (5), Deck (4), Causeur (0), Poirier (10), Rudy (6) and Abalde (7).
Baskonia: Miler-McIntyre (14), Marinkovic (9), Rogkavopoulos (14), Sedekerskis (3), Kotsar (2) -starting team‑; Costello (14), Howard (15), DÃez (0), Chiozza (3) and Raieste (0).
Partials: 26-17, 22-20, 22-16 and 20-21.
Referees: Mogulkoc, Latisevs and Foufis. No eliminated.
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