By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
AS Monaco led by a double-digit margin for the most part of the game and got a decisive 78 – 68 win over Baskonia to remain in the Top 8 of the EuroLeague standings with two games to play in the regular season. The Basque side has been eliminated from playoff contention as a result.
Will Thomas scored a game-high 16 points for Monaco. Dwayne Bacon had 14 points, Alpha Diallo finished with 10 points plus nine rebounds while Donta Hall posted all of his 10 points and seven rebounds in the first half.
“Baskonia has been playing well and we know what we have to do on our home court,” Diallo said. “I am glad that we came out with this win on our home court, for the fans. We’ve got an unbelievable crowd and they helped us out a lot. So it is all them, Roca Team! We are playing really aggressive defensively and offensively. We just hope to continue this on to our next game.”
Alec Peters (15 points, seven rebounds) and Jayson Granger (13 points) scored in double figures for Monaco while leading a comeback effort their team made from 21 points down in the third period.
Monaco closed halftime up 42 – 32 and went on to grab a 57 – 36 advantage with four minutes to play in the third period. Baskonia began reducing this margin piece by piece until making it a seven-point game halfway through the fourth quarter.
With the score 69 – 62 and everything up for grabs still, Monaco made a 9-0 run to go up 78 – 62 with 2:20 remaining to push back its opponents for good.
“First of all, I would like to congratulate Monaco, they were the better team,” Baskonia coach Neven Spahija said. “We tried with some crazy rotation that we never did. We came back to minus-7 and couldn’t do more than that. One more time, also credit to my players, they fought in so many games, with a special lineup. We lost a lot of energy in the game against Fenerbahce and probably because of that, they didn’t perform like usual tonight.”
A perfect week that can lead to the playoffs
After routing Olympiacos Piraeus, Monaco closed the double-game week with another win. Coach Sasa Obradovic appreciated how his team retained its focus to ultimately beat Baskonia without facing any serious problems.
“It feels great to fight for this playoffs position. It didn’t look like this when I arrived, but the great work and our great team atmosphere brought us to this situation, to have such a good result. OK, we know we have at least one more step to make to secure this playoffs spot, I would say, but I am happy with this. Today, we knew it was going to be a hard game. This is a team that creates problems against anyone. We had less energy than in the Olympiacos game, but I would say that for the majority of the game, we played smart. We execute to our strengths, and that is why I am happy.”