Monaco wins on the wire in Cholet in Betclic Elite
Cholet lost his invincibility at home. After eight successes since the start of the season at La Meilleraie, the Mauges team lost by one point on Sunday (89-88) to leader Monaco.
Perry Ellis had a match point near the circle in the very last seconds but missed the target. And Justin Patton, on the throw-in, had another chance with five tenths of a second on the clock but also failed.
This Cholet defeat is largely the work of Yakuba Ouattara (14 points) who sounded the alarm clock for Monaco in the last quarter. The new captain of the “Roca Team”, who replaces Adrien Moerman, dismissed from training, scored eleven points in the last ten minutes, allowing his team to pass for the first time in front in the second half and above all to score the basket decisive mid-distance baseline to restore the advantage after three-point Perry Ellis had put Cholet in the lead (88-87) at the start of the last minute.
Cholet led by 15 points in the 3rd quarter
The Choletais led the game for a long time, even having a fifteen-point lead (65-50) in the third quarter with the revving up of Dominic Artis (17 points). But Monaco raised its defensive level and reduced the gap before going 12-3 and taking control at the start of money-time.
While he shot 59% on shots (12 out of 24 from three points) and delivered 24 assists, Cholet can regret eight points dropped on the throw line and 14 stray bullets which fed a Monegasque team which saved its place of leader thanks to Ouattara or the Lithuanian pivot Donatas Motiejunas in success near the circle (17 points to 8 out of 9).