ruthless for Asvel, Monaco replaces
Very big Monegasque victory at the Astroballe. AS Monaco won 100-75 at the expense of Villeurbanne on Tuesday 18 January in a late match for the 19th day of the Euroleague. Initially scheduled for January 7, the meeting had been postponed due to cases of Covid-19 in the Rhone workforce.
Villeurbannais and Monegasques have faced each other three times this season. In the Euroleague, Asvel had won the first leg at the buzzer on a final shot from William Howard (85-84) but in the league the Roca Team had, on the other hand, won (84-82), both times at the Gaston-Médecin hall in Monaco.
On the floor of @LDLCASVEL, the #RocaTeam comes out with a controlled performance from start to finish 3rd victory in a row in @EuroLeague for the Roca Boys pic.twitter.com/k0CF7RBD2A
— AS Monaco Basket (@ASMonaco_Basket) January 18, 2022
Since the dismissal of its coach Zvezdan Mitrovic, replaced by Sasa Obradovic on December 13, the Roca Team has won four victories for two defeats in the Euroleague, thus falling from 13th to 10th place.
In front of the 2,000 spectators at the Astroballe, the Monegasques, physically superior, shone in attack against Asvel. The quartet formed by Mike James (20 points, exceeding the bar of 3,000 points scored in the Euroleague), Donatas Motiejunas (22 pts) and Dwayne Bacon (21 pts) and Alpha Diallo (17 pts), is very bad for the champions of France, still deprived of Raymar Morgan, David Lighty, Victor Wembanyama and William Howard, injured, and who concede 100 points for the first time this season in the Euroleague.
3000
@LeNaturel_05 reaches the milestone of 3000 points in the @EuroLeague. Congratulations Mike and keep rolling pic.twitter.com/LNXl7tmog0
— AS Monaco Basket (@ASMonaco_Basket) January 18, 2022
ASM limited the two Rhone spearheads, Elie Okobo (10 pts) and Chris Jones (9 pts) and gained up to 22 points ahead (75-53) in the 29th minute. A gap that TJ Parker’s men were never able to fill in the last quarter, on the contrary with a deficit increased to 25 points in the end (100-75).
The Roca Team signs a third victory in a row in the Euroleague (after beating Bayern and Maccabi) and replaces itself in the race for qualification for the final phase. It is now ahead of Asvel in the standings, which has won, against Fenerbahçe (84-82), only one of its last seven European meetings.