By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Mike James scored 26 points and dished out seven assists to lead AS Monaco to a 93 – 83 win over Baskonia to sweep the regular-season games between the two sides and return to victories after back-to-back losses.
The Monegasque side improved to 11 – 9 in Jordan Loyd’s return to action after early December.
“He’s one of our leaders,” said James on Loyd. “Just having him around the team and playing is always good. Even if he’s not up to his usual standards, just having him around, hearing his voice, and having his leadership and continuity within the team helps a lot.”
After a more or less balanced first half, Monaco turned on the offensive to go up 71 – 59 at the end of the third period.
A fiery Markus Howard (33 points) kept Baskonia in the game and then pushed his team to a comeback, hitting the jumper for the 86 – 83 with 2:33 remaining.
That was the last Baskonia scored in the game though since Monaco answered with strong defenses and a 7 – 0 run to secure the victory. “It’s obvious we have to improve when we play in important moments in the game,” Baskonia coach Dusko Ivanovic said after his team’s second defeat in a row that puts them at 10 – 10.
Donatas Motiejunas added 13 points while Alpha Diallo and Yakuba Ouattara had 12 points apiece to help Monaco win. Maik Kotsar posted 11 points plus eight rebounds for Baskonia and Tadas Sedekerskis scored 11 as well.
“It wasn’t easy to play this game after two losses because of the stress we had in the previous days,” said Monaco coach Sasa Obradovic.
“Having back Jordan who’s still trying to find his shape is going to be a big help. We go to Panathinaikos with a different confidence.”
Photo: EuroLeague Basketball