Dubai find their scoring touch in Vitoria

For a few minutes in Vitoria on Tuesday, Dubai Basketball were being asked an uncomfortable question. Baskonia had moved 14 to 2 ahead, with Tadas Sedekerskis already finding the basket repeatedly, and Xavi Pascual called his players together. After scoring only 58 points in their previous EuroLeague game, Dubai had begun another evening with very little going their way.

By the end of the first quarter they were in front. By the end of the match they had scored 93 points, won by 14 and given their coach a much more encouraging performance to take into the next stop on the trip. The recovery was important, but so was the way Dubai kept adding to it after the interval, turning a one point lead into a comfortable victory at the Buesa Arena.

Filip Petrusev finished with 17 points and Mfiondu Kabengele added 16 and 10 rebounds. Dwayne Bacon contributed 15, Elie Okobo 14 and Mamadi Diakite 11, giving Dubai five players in double figures. Their third win in five EuroLeague games ended a run of defeats against Fenerbahce and Crvena Zvezda, and provided the first away victory of their European season.

The opening had offered little indication of that outcome. Sedekerskis scored nine of Baskonia’s first 12 points, and Kenneth Faried’s basket extended the advantage before Pascual’s timeout. Dubai were already dealing with a sizeable deficit while the home side had reason to believe it could control the evening.

Davion Mintz helped change the score with two three pointers during the first quarter. Kabengele supplied points around the basket, and Dubai moved ahead before taking a 25 to 23 lead into the break. The players had recovered their position while there was still most of the match ahead of them.

Baskonia stayed close through the second quarter, leaving Dubai just 44 to 43 ahead at the interval. This was not an evening in which the visitors immediately turned an early recovery into an untroubled win. They had put themselves back in contention, but still needed a stronger second half to create the distance that would eventually separate the teams.

Dubai scored 26 points in the third quarter and held Baskonia to 19, taking a 70 to 62 lead into the fourth. They then added the first seven points of the final period, pushing the gap to 15 and prompting another home timeout. The sequence gave them room to manage the closing stages without every Baskonia basket threatening to undo their work. They outscored the hosts 49 to 36 across the second half.

Kabengele’s contribution went beyond his place among the leading scorers. Six of his 10 rebounds came at the offensive end, keeping possessions alive when a missed shot might otherwise have sent Baskonia back up the floor. Dubai did not win the overall rebound count, which finished 33 to 32 in the home side’s favour. The value lay in what their centre could recover during his own minutes, alongside the scoring that made him such a useful part of the comeback.

There was similar care in other parts of Dubai’s evening. They made 23 of 24 free throws and committed eight turnovers, while Baskonia finished with 15. Those figures help explain how a team could recover from a poor opening without requiring an exceptional individual scoring total. Dubai kept converting opportunities that were available to them and had enough contributors to continue scoring when the lineups changed.

Petrusev led the visitors despite beginning on the bench. Okobo and Diakite also reached double figures without starting, an encouraging return for Pascual from the players he introduced during the game. Several different players had a hand in moving Dubai from the early deficit to a position in which they could finish with confidence.

For supporters who watched the home defeat by Crvena Zvezda last Thursday, the difference in the final total will be particularly welcome. Dubai had managed 58 points that night and lost by 19. Five days later they had produced 35 more points against a different opponent, on the road. One result cannot establish that the problems of the earlier game have disappeared, but it does give the team a recent example of a more productive evening.

There has also been little time between opportunities to respond. Dubai won at Cluj in the ABA League on Sunday before travelling to face Baskonia, and their EuroLeague schedule takes them to Milan on Thursday. The succession of fixtures leaves limited space to dwell on either a defeat or a recovery. What matters now is how much of Tuesday’s contribution from across the squad can survive another change of opponent and venue.

Dubai’s next home game is against Studentski Centar on Monday, October 19, but there is European work to complete before returning to the Coca Cola Arena. Pascual takes a winning record into Milan, along with a reminder that an awkward beginning need not dictate the rest of a game. In Vitoria, his players found their way back quickly enough to spend the second half building on the recovery.