By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
LDLC ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne took extra care of the ball and kicked it up a notch in defense in the fourth quarter to defeat AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milano, 78-69, on Friday.
David Lighty scored six points in the first period and ten more in the fourth for a team-high 16 points. The team coached by T. J. Parker trailing for most of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season Round 24 match outscored the Italian outlet, 26-13, in the last period. Guerschon Yabusele put up all of his 14 points prior to the dominating fourth quarter.
“We had four turnovers in the second half, and then we got stop after stop after stop. That is how we have been winning our games, and the team is making a great effort,” summed up head coach Parker, “This is the EuroLeague, it is not easy, they have great players and made some tough shots. That is the way it is. After that, when we came back after halftime and came back with this different attitude, makes the difference.”
Norris Cole went for 12 points, including six in the last period featuring only his two personal turnovers as the overall negative tally for extremely focused ASVEL. Moustapha Fall registered 12 more points as the fifth double-digit scorer and pulled down a game-high eight rebounds.
“We struggled at first but started to have our rhythm. It is a good win for us,” pointed out Fall, “I think we just found our rhythm. We have some new additions, moved Norris to the 2 position and it has been huge for us so far. We found the right way to compete against this team.”
“We came out in the second half, played as a team together, didn’t give up, kept fighting and, in the end, we came away with the win,” added Lighty, “We have to keep going. We are trying to take it one game at a time, that is all we can do.”
Shavon Shields fired a game-high 18 points for the visitors. Zach LeDay ended up with 14 points.
Olimpia Milano went up ten points midway through the third quarter and committed only four turnovers the whole game but failed to hold on with Sergio Rodriguez, Vladimir Micov, and Jeff Brooks sidelined. The winning side missed Charles Kahudi and Derrick Walton.
The fourth win a row lifted the French team to 10-14. Ettore Messina’s side fell to 15-8 after prevailing in its previous six EuroLeague fixtures.
“They played very good defense for 40 minutes and that allowed them to come back in the fourth quarter,” said the experienced head coach, “I think we played well for three quarters, even when it is not easy to attack their aggressive defense. Probably, we got tired in the fourth quarter and we were not so sharp.”