Defense, team effort lead Baskonia part Darussafaka

Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz grabbed its fourth consecutive home win in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague regular season by downing Darussafaka Dogus Istanbul 73-52 at Fernando Buesa Arena on Friday. Baskonia moved up to 7-4 while Darussafaka dropped to 5-6. Shane Larkin led the winners with 14 points. Rodrigue Beaubois added 12, Toko Shengelia had 11, Johannes Voigtmann got 10 while Ilimane Diop contributed 4 blocks for Baskonia. James Anderson led Darussafaka with 11 points. Baskonia did everything right in the first half, limiting Darussafaka to just 19 points on 5-of-22 two-point shots (22.7%) and 3-of-13 three-point shots (23.1%), pulling down 20 defensive rebounds and adding 7 blocks to get an 18-point margin. Nothing changed after the break, as Baskonia kept full control of the game, limiting Darussafaka to 11-of-38 two-point shots (28.9%) and just 52 points, tying an EuroLeague season low. Baskonia outrebounded Darussafaka by 53-32 and pulled down 40 defensive boards, the highest mark for an EuroLeague team since December 2012. Its 53 rebounds rank eighth in competition history, too.