Thanks to 26 points from its French leader, the Villeurbanne club won its third Euroleague match of the season after five consecutive defeats.
Clutch Maledon. A basket and two free throws from Théo Maledon in the final seconds of a suspenseful match allowed Villeurbanne to win at the expense of Red Star Belgrade (77-74) during the 10th day of Euroleague, Thursday at the Astroballe.
Asvel ended a series of five consecutive losses by winning its third victory of the season on the European scene but remains stuck at the bottom of the ranking with a record of three wins for seven defeats. While the score was 74-73 in favor of the Serbian team, Maledon (26 points, 4 assists) gave Villeurbanne the advantage back thirteen seconds from the end (75-74) before making two free throws ( 77-74) to ensure the success of the Rhodanians.
The Villeurbannais once again delivered a solid game after holding off Olympiakos Piraeus on Tuesday in Athens, losing by only two points (94-92). A meeting during which Théo Maledon had already scored 31 points, his Euroleague record.
Lauvergne and De Colo also decisive
Against Red Star, they led by eleven points at halftime (43-32) after winning the first two quarters (24-20, 19-12). Faced with the reaction of the Serbian team led by Yago Dos Santos (13 points, 4 assists), Codi Miller-McIntyre (9 points, 5 assists) and Filip Petrusev (18 points), Asvel then lost the next two (15-19, 19-23) but still led by seven points before the last ten minutes (58-51). The Rhone residents were caught on two free throws from Milos Teodosic 6 minutes 35 from the end (62-61).
The Red Star, which remained on two consecutive successes, the last of which, Tuesday in Monaco (98-90), thought it could win but that was without taking into account the will of Asvel where Joffrey Lauvergne (13 points, 10 rebounds ), Nando De Colo (8 points, 5 assists), David Lighty (12 points) were also the main architects of the victory.
«It’s good because I always hear this refrain which says that Villeurbanne always loses at the end but I point out that 90% of Euroleague matches are won or lost at the end.“, Poupet emphasized. “Being competitive in the Euroleague until the end is a good thing. I am happy because the players deserve it,” he insisted, referring to “a victory of character».
Senegal
