By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
ALBA is always dangerous and at home against a team with similar quality, it can’t be denied. That was the case in the 84-79 win over LDLC ASVEL.
Martin Hermannsson with 21 points, Matteo Spagnolo with 16, Yanni Wetzel with 16, and Trevion Williams with 12 led a balanced effort as the Germans got their first win of the season in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
ASVEL was in the game in the first half, but couldn’t keep up for most of the second.
Theo Maledon scored 17 points, Paris Lee had 16, Neal Sako added 12, Edwin Jackson finished the night with 10, and Nando De Colo did the same. However, no one of them could change the momentum of the game before it was too late.
“It was a weird game with long pauses due to clock malfunction, it was hard to get a rhythm but we had longer periods making a run”, said Hermannsson who scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half and joked: “They all tell me to shoot more threes, so I could have been a little bit better in the fourth”.
Home court rules
Playing at home, ALBA started the game leading by seven in the first period (20-13) and made it even a nine-point game (24-15) however things changed rapidly.
ASVEL’s answer was a 9-0 run to tie the score (24-24) and continued for a 34-30 lead with Theo Maledon having already 10 points.
However, the halftime score was tied at 36 with Maledon scoring 12 first-half points, while ALBA had just 2/11 threes and ASVEL just one more made (3/11).
Things changed in the second half with ALBA jumping to a 66-54 at the start of the fourth period, as Martin Hermannsson took over with a total of 21 points in 19 minutes of action.
ALBA led even by 13 (71-58) and with 2.20 left Lee with a three made it a five-point game (79-75). ASVEL had a last chance to steal the game, as Lee trimmed the lead to three (81-78), Maledon stole the ball, got fouled, and made one of two free throws (81-79) with 24 seconds left.
Tim Schneider was fouled and made two of two free throws (83-79) for a total of 11 points and ASVEL couldn’t score again after that.
Photo credit: EuroLeague