By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
AS Monaco guard Elie Okobo missed the 2022 French All-Star game since it was held at the same time as his team’s match against Zalgiris Kaunas but put on a show of his own to lead his squad back to EuroLeague wins.
Okobo scored 13 out of his team-high 22 points in the fourth quarter, dished out nine assists and had four steals to push Monaco to an 84 – 82 win over Zalgiris Kaunas. The Monegasque side trailed for the entire game after the first period and took its first lead with 3:18 to play when Yakuba Ouattara made it 74 – 72 to cap an 8-0 run.
The two teams traded blows, entering crunch time. After Tomas Dimsa hit the triple for the 80 – 79 with 53 seconds remaining, Okobo answered with the same currency to put Monaco up 83 – 79. Edgaras Ulanovas made all of his free throws after winning a foul on a 3-point attempt and, on the other end, Okobo went 1-2 from the line after nine out of nine.
Zalgiris had 16 seconds to win or send the game to the extra period but its players didn’t even manage to shoot the ball on time and lost after leading for almost 30 minutes and being up even by 13 in the first half.
“We fought. We fought a lot,” Okobo said after helping his team improved to 11-5. “They had a lot of easy one-on-ones, easy second-chances in the first half, and we corrected it. We did a much better job. We found the way to move the ball better and everybody was involved. I am just trying to win for the team. It was good, we fought and were aggressive. We didn’t give up at home and before the end of the year, it is special, it is good.”
Rolands Smits had 19 points plus five rebounds and Keenan Evans finished with 17 points plus five assists for Zalgiris that came close to a major win on the road but fell short down the stretch. The visiting team had played some strong, physical defense for the larger part of the game to shut down most Monaco’s weapons and Mike James (two points on 0-7 shots plus four assists) in particular.
“I think that both teams today deserved the win,” Zalgiris coach Kazys Maksyvtis said. “Monaco fought until the end and took this 50-50 game. It is a very sad loss for us. We stopped playing, especially defensively, and they scored some easy layups, and some lucky shots at the end of the fourth quarter, but this is basketball. We lost this game, so I am very sad.”
Zalgiris took a 17 – 26 lead at the end of the first quarter and retained an advantage until the final stretch where Monaco’s aggressiveness took over. Ouattara (14 points) and Alpha Diallo (14 points) also stood out from Monaco.
“It was special,” Monaco Sasa Obradovic said. “First, we played against a team that knows exactly what they are doing in any moment of the game. We tried and distracted them a little bit in the end. We took them out of some good shots but it was a big win. Even though we didn’t find our best rhythm on defense and offense, winning this kind of games is a fortune. Several guys, I would say Elie [Okobo] first, but also Yakuba [Ouattara], Strazel, played very good basketball and helped us a lot.”