By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
It’s one thing to achieve a comeback against CSKA Moscow and another to erase a 22-point deficit to ultimately get a comfortable win. Especially if you are a EuroLeague newcomer.
That’s exactly what AS Monaco did. With seven (!) players scoring in double figures, the French side beat CSKA 97 – 80 to record its fourth win in seven games of its maiden EuroLeague season in a spectacular manner.
Donta Hall led the way for Monaco with 17 points, 10 rebounds and an immense defensive effort. Danilo Andjusic had 16 points and Brock Motum finished with 11 points. Paris Lee dropped nine of his 11 points in the third quarter where Monaco completed its comeback and former NBAer Dwayne Bacon had a pretty solid EuroLeague debut with 11 points (including the basket that handed Monaco its first lead in the game) in 21 minutes.
“Glory to God and a shout-out to my mom,” Hall said. “I talked to her for a while before the game. I knew I had to bring the energy, with a broken nose too. Either way, broken nose or not, I’m coming.”
A couple of months after his dramatic breakup with CSKA last season, Mike James completed his first game against former club with 10 points, eight assists and five steals. He overall masterminded Monaco’s offense in a playmaking fashion.
“We needed a win for sure,” James said. “We lost a tough one to Barcelona at home. It’s tough losing one like that, especially when you were leading the whole game. We wanted to come out here and fight. They’re obviously a great team. They have Final Four aspirations. It was good to get a win and protect our home court, especially since we already lost one here.”
After trailing 13-35, the hosts reduced the margin to close halftime down 39 – 52 and then completely overpowered CSKA to take a 67 – 64 lead by the end of the third quarter. CSKA was nothing alike the dominant squad that started the game, being outplayed on both ends and committing one turnover (they finished with 21) after the other. The Army Men struggled a lot under Monaco’s energetic defense, looking unable to even react while the hosts even took and established a double-digit advantage.
Will Clyburn (19 points, six turnovers), Alexey Shved (15 points, five assists) and Joel Bolomby (13 points) were CSKA’s top contributors.
“Congratulations to Monaco,” CSKA coach Dimitris Itoudis said. “Obviously you’ve seen two different faces regarding our team. The first when we had a little more stamina and more concentration and clear minds, we were dominant in the game. Everything after that started collapsing. We had way too many turnovers and we couldn’t defend them on one-on-one. We were bad in the second half. Monaco had an extra day [of rest] and they were much better. We’re not going to lose faith in this team. We came on this trip short-handed with three very important players out, who we hope will join us again in the future.”
A transformation that led to a happy ending
Monaco coach Zvezdan Mitrovic was naturally delighted with how his team turned the game around and got such a win.
“Congrats to my team,” Mitrovic said. “We opened the game soft, with no defense. Some mistakes on offense and we didn’t want to play. We are still trying to grow in the EuroLeague. Maybe the game against CSKA will start to help us play with open eyes, with confidence and with full strength. We tried in the second quarter to come back – it was an equal quarter – and we started to play our game. The second half, it was totally different. First off, we changed our defense. We had to try something different because it was very hard to try to stop the CSKA players. They opened the game with easy dunks and confidence. They scored their points like they always do. Shved and Clyburn are among the best basketball players in Europe. The third quarter was really amazing – and the fourth. We played a different defense and we got more confidence in our offense. And we really started to play great. I’m happy, I’m really happy. And I think our fans and people who follow us – and even the fans of CSKA – could enjoy a real spectacular game.”
Photo: EuroLeague Basketball