Elric Delord (Le Mans): “Monaco played very well”
Photo credit: Gérard Héloïse
Le Mans coach Elric Delord looks back on his team’s defeat against AS Monaco (81-90) this Tuesday evening in the last match of the 10th day of Betclic ELITE.
Tuesday evening, Le Mans recorded its third consecutive defeat. After their setbacks in Paris (104-88) then against Bourg (87-90), the MSB this time lowered the flag against the ogre of the championship, AS Monaco (81-90). Unlike Dijon and Limoges, who had beaten the Roca Team less than 48 hours after they played in the EuroLeague, the Sarthois were not entitled to this boost in the calendar since the meeting was Tuesday evening, four days after the success against Bayern Munich. “They are coming off of two defeats and instead of playing on Sunday, we had to postpone the date of the match because of a show at Antarès, they had a little more rest. », to relate the trainer defeated Elric Delord. Less used mentally, the formation of Sasa Obradovic rejected the meeting as it should. “The Monaco team played very well, continues the Périgord technician. This team is oversized, hard to beat. We were in the game, we took a shine but we came back. In the end, apart from Mike James, a EuroLeague team was on the field. »
The Manceaux relaxed too much defensively during the second quarter period during which they conceded “19 points in 5 minutes” versus “5 in the last 5 minutes” counts Elric Delord. “What’s hard against strong teams is that when you have a little slack, you pay for it immediately. We collect 90 points against one of the best teams in Europe, that’s fine. Afterwards, overall, we have 35 minutes where we are in it”. And if the MSB ended up bowing, the coach seemed satisfied. “We found the values shown in the first part of the season, both defensively and offensively. Coming back to 5 points in the game was a good thing. » Especially since Captain Terry Tarpey is still out. “He must return at the beginning of January”specifies the former assistant coach of ASVEL, who limited the role of Kenny Baptiste this Tuesday (2 minutes of play). “If Kenny has played little, it’s because when he comes in, he’s not in it. The treatment is the same for everyone and the competition will be there when Terry returns. » After this series of three defeats, Le Mans (6 wins in 10 games) now intends to take advantage of a more affordable schedule to regain success. “Our 3 defeats were against the biggest budgets in the championship. Now, we have to validate with a victory at Gravelines. »