By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
David Lighty with 12 points in the first half and 19 in total, plus Norris Cole with big plays down the stretch, 12 points, and five assists led LDLC ASVEL to the 87-79 win.
Τhanks to a 7-0 run at the last 90 seconds of the first half, ASVEL got a 44-35 lead and started the third period with a 13-4 run making the score 57-39. But the game was not over as Bayern almost made an amazing comeback.
ASVEL entered the last period leading by 14 (66-52) and Bayern didn’t let go, cutting the lead to nine (69-60). The answer was a big three by Antoine Diot (72-60), still, Bayern managed to tie the score at 77 with two minutes left after two free throws by Vladimir Lucic who had in total 18 points.
ASVEL once again had the answer with a 4-0 run with Norris Cole scoring a bucket and then giving the assist to Mustapha Fall who finished the game with 15 points.
“We have seen Bayern making the comeback in many more games, but overall I think we deserved to win”, said coach ASVEL TJ Parker after the game. “I’m glad because we played a good game, and we deserved this win. We made stop after stop, we managed to make some big baskets, to draw fouls, get to the free-throw line and make free throws, and that made the difference. We are playing against great teams in the EuroLeague, all of them are capable of scoring a lot of points so we must try to do the best we can, make it the hardest for them and that’s what we did tonight.”
Four more free throws by Cole iced the game with Wade Baldwin scoring 19 points but also making crucial turnovers in the closing seconds.
“Some of our players were not ready to play, in the last minutes they had a big cost for us, we were straggling”, said Bayern coach Andrea Trinchieri.
Thanks to this result, ASVEL climbed to the 11th position, tied with Olympiacos at 11-14, while Bayern Munich remains fifth in a three-way tie with Real Madrid and Fenerbahce at 15-10.