The Montenegrin tactician oversaw his 250th EuroLeague game in charge of the Spanish side.
Dusko Ivanovic celebrated Baskonia milestone with win at Efes
Article
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 16 of 34
Group Regular Season
l
l
l
w
w
w
l
l
w
w
Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz returned to winning ways in Round 16, downing Anadolu Efes Istanbul 80-87 at Sinan Erdem Sports Hall on what was a very special night for head coach Dusko Ivanovic.
Coach Ivanovic is in his fourth stint with Baskonia and Friday night marked his 250th EuroLeague game with his current team. He currently ranks third in the all-time list with 375 games coached, and exactly two thirds were with Baskonia. Only Zeljko Obradovic (509), Ettore Messina (454) and Ergin Ataman (404) are ahead of him.
This is Ivanovic's 14th EuroLeague season with Baskonia, which he led to the 2001 EuroLeague Finals and the 2005 EuroLeague Championship Game. He has a 141-109 EuroLeague record with the club (56.4% wins).
Baskonia stepped up late to beat Efes
Baskonia got the win in a way Coach Ivanovic will surely be proud of, playing with lots of intensity throughout the game before going on a 0-10 run in the fourth quarter. When Efes lost control for a second, Markus Howard had 6 points in that run and Baskonia quickly built a double-digit margin.
Baskonia did better in the second half, burying half of its 16 three-point shots after going 5-of-14 in the first half (35.7% 3FG). He had 6 assists before the break and 12 in the second half. Codi Miller-McIntyre had 10 of those 18 assists to go with 14 points and 9 rebounds. Markus Howard finished the game with 28 points. Coach Ivanovic praised both of them after the game.
"I think we played with patience on offense and defense and in the last quarter, we had Markus [Howard]," he commented. "He made some three-point shots and we took the advantage, but I think everybody, especially Miller-McIntyre, he played really well, organization-wise and on the fastbreak, and the moment that we needed to go up, we made 6-8 points easily. After that, it was easier for us."
Baskonia is 8-3 since Ivanovic joined the game early in the season. His team reaches the regular season's halfway mark against EA7 Emporio Armani Milan next week.