By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
AS Monaco defeated ALBA Berlin 91 – 74 to complete its maiden appearance in a EuroLeague regular season on a high note. The seventh-placed (16-12) Monegasque side will now head to the playoffs for the first time in the history of the club to face second-seeded Olympiacos Piraeus.
Dwayne Bacon (19 points, six assists) and Donatas Motiejunas (18 points) led Monaco overall while Alpha Diallo had 13 points. Their team made a 10 – 0 run after falling behind 21 – 22 and proceeded to take a 49 – 37 lead at halftime, never to look back.
“We competed at a high level, they competed at a high level, and I am just happy my team played as hard as we can to show we can fight for something,” Bacon said. “In the playoffs it will be very hard. Olympiacos plays very hard, they are very good, but anybody can be beaten if we come to play the right way every night.”
ALBA kept trailing by double figures for the rest of the match save for a brief moment in the third period when the margin was cut to 59 – 51. Monaco responded with a 9 – 3 run and went on to go up even by 22 points down the stretch.
“We gave all the energy, everyone played hard and it is a great team win from all of us,” Motiejunas said. “But having a coach who just amplifies that we have to win every game, that we are going to win every game with that kind of an attitude, it kind of makes it easy to come to the game and be ready. The regular season is over, we have to forget about it, draw a line. It is 0-0, we start with the playoffs. We have a huge fight ahead of us.”
Christ Koumadje posted 15 points plus nine rebounds for ALBA and Yovel Zoosman scored 11. The Albatrosses finished the regular season with a 12 – 16 record and at the 11th spot in the standings.
“We could not play good defense today and they played very well,” ALBA coach Israel Gonzalex said. “Congratulations to Monaco, they played an excellent game, they made very good baskets and we could not stop them tonight. About this season, we will remember how we are building a team spirit, how we suffered a lot of problems this year, but with these problems we could go on and I am happy with the work we did this EuroLeague season.”
With the look on the future
The regular season mission was more than accomplished for Monaco with the first-time trip to the playoffs. For coach Sasa Obradovic, the team should leave that behind and look at the task at hand.
“We did a perfect second part of the season,” Obradovic said. “We dominated, played great basketball. Me, as a coach, I have a lot of reasons to be happy. But this is the end of one competition, and now starts the other one. What good we did in the past, has to stay in the past. We should build up confidence for the best that is coming, which is the playoffs. It is always important to stay in rhythm. I think, the contribution from all the guys helped us to win. It is too early to have any thoughts about Olympiacos. Like I said, it is a completely different competition, so we should be ready.”