By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The trio of Adreian Payne, Tonye Jekiri, and Jordan Taylor made things happen in the last quarter for LDLC ASVEL on the way to the 75-65 win over Bayern Munich.
Taylor scored 15 points and dished eight assists, Payne also had 15 points and eight rebounds.
Jekiri added 12 points, four assists and four steals for the winning side. David Lighty also scored 10 points for ASVEL.
Vladimir Lucic and Mathias Lessort had 14 points each for Bayern, but the Germans didn’t have an answer in the fourth period, despite a solid first half.
In a very close game, the hosts managed to get a 46-40 lead with a 12-5 run at the start of the second half. However, Bayern came back, and with the score tied at 51, Rihards Lomazs gave a 54-51 lead to ASVEL thanks to a buzzer-beating three at the end of the third period.
It was the start of a 15-2 run that gave to the French side a double-digit lead (66-53) for the first time in the game. Bayern couldn’t recover after that.
After this result, ASVEL has a 9-14 record and Bayern remains last in the EuroLeague standings with 7-15.
“It was a rough January”
ASVEL needed this win in order to retain playoff hopes and Taylor admitted that blatantly: “It’s nice to win again. It was a rough January for us and hopefully, we can build some momentum off that. I think we did a good job moving the ball in the second half. Coach wants us to be really aggressive. And for the most part, we did a pretty good job. We can always get better. But in the second half, we did a good job changing the pace of the game and pressuring them. We just have to keep battling and try to get better.”
And coach Zvezdan Mitrovic agreed: “It was an amazing effort: full-court press for 40 minutes. It’s very difficult to play. I am really proud of my guys. They really fought 40 minutes tonight on the court. I think we absolutely deserve this win. We had a great heart, great effort, every player showed it. Maybe it’s not a beautiful game to watch – maybe some moments on offense. But defensively we did a very, very good job.”
Photo credit: EuroLeague