After five consecutive defeats on the European scene, the Parisians raised their heads this Tuesday on their floor at the Adidas Arena.
All bad things come to an end: Paris Basketball ended its series of five defeats in a row in the Euroleague on Tuesday by dominating Efes Istanbul late on (88-84) on its floor at the Arena Porte de the Chapel during the 21st day.
A 12th success, for eight defeats, which allows the Parisians to remain at the top of the table, in sixth place with a match in hand. An especially liberating 12th success as Tiago Splitter’s men had not won in the premier competition for more than a month.
«It was a key period for us, said fullback Yakuba Ouattara, we are still learning, everything that happens to us is new and the way we respond to these periods is what will shape the ‘team», who is discovering the Euroleague this season. Ideally launched by a solid first quarter (19-13) where they notably responded defensively, the Parisians were nevertheless unable to keep their little lead afterwards.
Despite the always very valuable TJ Shorts (17 pts, 8 assists), the locals combined offensive breakdown and opposing awakening – symbolized by the contribution of Vincent Poirier (10 points, six rebounds, an assist at the break) – to find themselves behind (37-39).
Suspense until the end
What followed was a mano a mano between Parisians and teammates of Elijah Bryant (21 points) where two three-point shots from Darius Thompson, Nadir Hifi and Yakuba Ouattara came to respond again from long distance, letting the rages the former Monegasque.
«There were ups and downs during the match, what I remember is our fighting spirit, the defensive aggressiveness that we were able to display at times and we didn’t give up.» Ouattara appreciated again. “We were in some areas of play more aggressive than them, but not on rebounds», rightly underlined Tiago Splitter while Efes Istanbul in fact dominated the field (45 against 26).
Nevertheless, “a lot of players did a lot of positive things in attack to help us win“, he added, while TJ Shorts, Collin Malcolm, Nadir Hifi, Ouattara, and Mikael Jantunen all scored at least 10 points. It was the latter, a final three-point shot 45 seconds from time (85-78) which finally sealed the fate of the match. Enough to get an entire audience on their feet, happy to see the capital club definitively take the lead. And above all, raise your head.
And to now enter a new positive dynamic, like what it was able to offer at the start of the season, Paris will have to continue on Thursday, still at home, against the Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv. A meeting which will be scrutinized both on and off the field, this one having been classified as high risk.
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