Real routs Baskonia on the road

Real Madrid grabbed its fifth consecutive win by downing Bitci Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz 60-88 at Buesa Arena on Thursday. Real improved to 10-2 in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings while Baskonia dropped to 4-8 and is 1-6 in its last seven games. Fabien Causeur led the winners with 13 points, Walter Tavares and Thomas Heurtel each had 12 and Alberto Abalde grabbed 11 rebounds for Real. Steven Enoch and Simone Fontecchio paced Baskonia with 14 points apiece. Causeur scored 6 points in a 0-10 run that allowed Real to get a double-digit lead, 14-25, after 10 minutes. Heurtel struck twice from downtown and Rudy Fernandez hit 3 more from beyond the arc to boost Los Blancos' margin to 34-52 at the break. Little changed after that, as Real boosted its margin to 47-71 after 30 minutes and then again to 49-75 soon after that, cruising to a no-doubt-about-it road win.

Enoch got Baskonia going with a three-pointer and erased Abalde's jumper with a mid-range shot for a 5-2 lead. Causeur struck from downtown, but a red-hot Enoch followed an alley-oop slam with a baseline jumper. Tavares answered with a put-back slam and Causeur added consecutive layups to put Real in charge, 9-11. Abalde dunked and Causeur capped a 0-10 Real with a floater. Landry Nnoko rescued Baskonia with a jump hook that Vincent Poirier matched with an alley-oop tip-in. Guerschon Yabusele scored down low and so did Causeur, Adam Hanga and Poirier for a 14-25 Real lead after 10 minutes.

Wade Baldwin IV ignited the crowd with an alley-oop dunk, but Heurtel struck twice from beyond the arc to boost the margin to 16-31. Fernandez joined the three-point shootout. Lamar Peters and Nnoko brought Baskonia within 20-34. Fernandez insisted from beyond the arc, but Baldwin improved that with a wild four-point play. Sergio Llull stepped up with a driving layup and Nigel Williams-Goss and Fernandez each added a triple to break the game open at 26-45. Fontecchio dunked in traffic and Enoch added a three-point play, but Llull and Williams-Goss kept Real cruising. After Vanja Marinkovic hit a triple, Tavares and Abalde established a 34-53 Real margin at halftime.

Baldwin dunked after the break and Peters added a layup off a steal, but Yabusele and Tavares each scored in the paint for a 38-57 score. Causeur kept pushing Los Blancos but Enoch scored a big basket in the low post and Peters added a fastbreak layup to make Real call timeout at 42-59. Heurtel nailed back-to-back jumpers and Yabusele added a three-point play that boosted the margin to 42-66. Tadas Sedekerskis struck from downtown and Fontecchio hit a jumper, but Hanga followed a backdoor layup with a buzzer-beating three-pointer for a 47-71 Real margin after 30 minutes.

Rokas Giedraitis found his first points early in the fourth quarter. Poirier answered with back-to-back layups to seal the outcome, 49-75. Giedraitis hit a corner triple off a Baskonia timeout and Fontecchio added a jumper and a bomb from downtown for a 57-77 score with over 4 minutes left. Heurtel found Tavares for a dunk and Llull soon added a three-pointer for a 57-82 Real lead. Little changed after that, as Los Blancos cruised to a well-deserved victory.

Balanced offense gives Real big win

Real Madrid used a balanced offense to register its 10th win of the season. In its Round 12 game against Bitci Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz, Real had nine players with at least 7 points, led by Fabien Causeur, who scored 13. Thomas Heurtel and Walter Tavares were the other players to score in double digits with 12 points apiece. Rudy Fernandez got 9, Sergio Llull and Vincent Poirier each had 8 while Guerchon Yabusele, Nigel Williams-Goss and Adam Hanga netted 7 apiece. Alberto Abalde may have scored only 5, but added 11 rebounds and 4 assists. Everyone contributed and that led to a 60-88 win at Buesa Areba.

Real outpowers Baskonia in first half

Real Madrid had a really strong first half in its Round 12 game against Bitci Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz, effectively sealing the outcome at the break. Real made 8 of 16 three-pointers in the first half. Six of them - 3 from Rudy Fernandez, 2 from Thomas Heurtel and 1 from Nigel Williams-Goss - came in a pivotal second quarter. Real outrebounded Baskonia 15-26 in the opening 20 minutes with 10 offensive boards, getting more steals (7) than turnovers (6). Alberto Abalde was all over the place with 5 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists before the break. Real led 34-53 at halftime and did not find much trouble to seal the outcome.

Fontecchio bounces back

Simone Fontecchio has been one of Bitci Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz's pillars so far this season. In the previous three games, however, Fontecchio had averaged 7.3 points on 3-of-13 three-point shooting (23.1% 3FG), 3.7 rebounds and a PIR of 10.3. Fontecchio bounced back in his team's home loss against Real Madrid. Even though Baskonia suffered a 60-88 defeat, Fontecchio came off the bench to get 14 points, 7 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 assist and 3 fouls drawn for a PIR of 18.