By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
David Lighty scored 20 points, but it was Jordan Taylor with ten points, five assists and three steals who made things happen in ASVEL’s 72-65 win over Valencia Basket.
ASVEL had a solid lead from the get-go and despite Valencia’s effort, they kept it until the end.
However, Valencia cut ASVEL’s lead to two (61-59) with four minutes left, but the Spaniards missed three consecutive opportunities to tie the game or even take the lead after that. To be exact Mike Tobey, Guillem Vives and Louis Labeyrie missed their respective three-point attempts.
With two minutes left, Valencia was still in striking distance, trailing again by two (63-61).
Taylor made two crucial free throws to give to ASVEL a four-point cushion (65-61), then he stole the ball and with one more made shot gave his team a six-point lead (67-61). There was no coming back after that for Valencia with Lighty sealing the deal.
Vives with 14 points was the top scorer of the losing side, which is now tied with Zalgiris Kaunas, Khimki Moscow Region and Olympiacos at 12-15 between the 7th and the 10th position of the standings. ASVEL is two wins behind at 10-17.
“Better than expected”
ASVEL coach Zvezdan Mitrovic didn’t hide his satisfaction from the game and the result: “That was better than I expected: the defense the whole game controlling Valencia with one of the best offenses in EuroLeague. We did a great job defensively and when you do this, it’s always easier for us. We had two new guys, but I am just happy with the result. We just need to be focused on every game. The players did well doing their job. We controlled the game from the beginning to the end, and that was good.”
Jordan Taylor agreed: “We played a lot tougher [than against Khimki], especially to start the game. We had a couple of lulls where we lost some speed, some intensity. But for us, it’s big to play with that intensity. Right now we don’t match that on the road. At home, the crowd helps us out. We have seven games left, we have to try to bring that every game and see what happens. Everybody did a good job today moving without the ball and finding soft spots, especially when they were showing. Antoine [Diot] and Theo [Maledon] did a good job in finding the short roll and finding the slips and guys did a great job finding the open spots after that – especially Guerschon [Yabusele]. He did a great job tonight playing with speed and opening things up.”
Photo credit: EuroLeague