By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
AS Monaco (5-1) proved once again that they play incredible basketball this season in EuroLeague. Jordan Loyd and Mike James had a great night which was enough to get the 86-77 win over Crvena Zvezda (1-5) in round six.
James had the game-high 21 points, followed by Jordan Loyd’s 20 who played in Crvena Zvezda back in 2021.
“We are happy to get a win and protect the home court. We did our job. I love the guys from Crvena Zvezda, I had a great year in Belgrade”, Loyd said after the game.
Monaco is now tied at the top of the EuroLeague standings with Fenerbahce Beko.
“We will take the win. We did not play great, we have to be better. It’s still early in the season to talk about the standings”, said Sasa Obradovic.
On the other side, Filip Petrusev had a great game for Crvena Zvezda with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
It was evident that both opponents were not on a great offensive night.
Crvena Zvezda was a bit better in the first quarter, but Monaco players woke up just before halftime. Mike James did his thing, he scored with ease, and that opened the door for a nice seven-point lead at the half (38-31).
The start of the third quarter was all Ben Bentil. The big man from Crvena Zvezda scored seven points by himself to bring the Serbian side back to a close game.
But the guests relied on individual solutions that did not pan out most of the time while Monaco was firing on all cylinders by the end of the quarter (56-46).
A double-digit deficit proved too much for the Serbian team to overcome. Monaco held on with relative ease to close the game out.
“We had a chance in the second quarter but we did not make the open shots”, said Crvena Zvezda’s coach Vladimir Jovanovic.