Real Madrid is the first team this Euroleague season to reach the Final Four in Berlin after winning Game 3 of the series 98-102 against a never-tamed Baskonia. Chus Mateo’s team, which finished first in the regular season, does not disprove the predictions that saw it in the German capital after just three games: Guerchon Yabusele is the MVP of the evening (23 points), assisted by Facundo Campazzo (13 points and 26 rating) and Sergio Rodriguez (9 assists). A moving performance from Marcus Howard (29 points) was not enough for Baskonia, as he ended his European season as a top scorer here.
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The match starts at a very high pace: Mario Hezonja responds to a Matt Costello on the defensive in attack (3/3 from two), very inspired in the first minutes. The partial after 7′ says 17-16 for the Basques with Real Madrid very imprecise from beyond the arc (2/8), but almost infallible inside the area (5/6). 5 points in a row for Marcus Howard which were not enough to end the first 10 minutes with the lead because Real continued to make no mistakes in the area with two baskets from Gabriel Deck and Vincent Poirier: the first quarter ended 22-22.
The second period, resumed after a long interruption due to technical problems at the table, resumes along the lines of the first: Howard continues to show his talent in attack by scoring two consecutive triples while Hezonja continues to be the only one of Los Blancos who is accurate from the arc : 33-27 after 2′. Codi Miller-McIntyre scores 4 points in a row and gives coach Ivanovic’s team a double-digit lead 37-27. A triple from Sergio Rodriguez immediately brings Real back into contact: 39-36 with 5 minutes left before the break. Baskonia tries to move away again with Vanja Marinkovic scoring a triple for +9 (49-40) 3′ before the long break. Real doesn’t want to let the Basques escape before the break and comes within the score (56-52) led by an immortal Chacho Rodriguez. The teams enter the locker room after a very offensive first half (34-32 score in the second period).
Upon returning from the locker rooms the music does not change: the attacks continue to prevail over the defenses, with Baskonia trying to extend their lead led by the usual Howard: 14-8 partial for +10 (70-60) after just 5′. But a failure by Real still doesn’t allow the Basques to escape definitively: two consecutive triples, one by Yabusele and one by Hezonja from 10 metres, bring the Blancos dangerously close again: 73-72 is the score with which the third quarter ends.
The last 10 minutes open with Howard continuing to be unstoppable: 7 points in a row that come with three baskets scored in different ways and Baskonia goes up 5 (80-75) forcing coach Mateo to take an immediate time-out. The break was good for the Madrid team who with a deadly run of 13-0, led by a wild Yabusele, moved up to +8 (80-88) with 5 minutes left. A moving Howard is the last to give up and scores 6 consecutive points to go -5 (86-91). Rogkavopoulos scores the triple for -4 (89-93) with 3 minutes left and Costello scores -2 in the following action (91-93). Campazzo scores +4 after baskets by Miller-McIntyre and Yabusele: 93-97 with 2′ left. The Argentine closes the score by supporting the two points of +5 (95-100) with 20″ to go. The match ends 98-102 for Real Madrid who becomes the first team to fly to Berlin for the 2024 Final Four.
Here are the complete statistics of the match
In the image Guerchon Yabusele, Instagram profile photo of Real Madrid Basket
Matteo Orsolan
