If Monaco was deprived of its Frenchmen Petr Cornelie, Mam Jaiteh and Terry Tarpey, Berlin had to do without the Icelandic Martin Hermannsson. On the other hand, it was the great return of Nick Calathès who entered after five minutes, and who was immediately effective on both sides of the field… without taking a single shot.
The Monegasques put on a collective demonstration in the first half pushing their advantage up to +20: 25-14 (8th) and 33-53 (20th). However, they lost their concentration and their grit when they returned to the floor against the Germans who were surprised to face a more relaxed defense. Via its American back Matt Thomas, ALBA returned to 54-65, 61-70 (28th), and 67-79 (30th).
Matthew Strazel broke his career high in points (15) with a superb 5/6 behind the arc, but Monaco took time to put his opponent’s head underwater to the point of only having 6 points ahead with 3’30 remaining (86-92). Fortunately, the Roca Team was solid both on free throws (17/19) and three-pointers (11/22) and Mike James, top scorer with 23 points, gave the boost he must.
For its part, ASVEL was wheel in wheel with Milan for a long time but gave in in the last quarter. Nando De Colo (22), Théo Maledon (18 but 7 lost balls) and Andre Roberson (12) brought 52 of the team’s 66 points to three. In Milan, the pair Nikola Mirotic (18 points and 8 rebounds), Zach LeDay (17 points and 6 rebounds) was dominant.
The Berlin-Monaco boxscore is HERE.
The ASVEL-Milan boxscore is HERE.
