By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
There’s a new emerging power in French basketball and that was proved beyond any doubt in the 86-80 road win of Paris in Monaco.
TJ Shorts was simply unstoppable with 28 points, 10 assists, and four rebounds, making things happen for the EuroCup champions.
“We lost a lot of tight games, we felt we were right there and this is going to boost our confidence”, he said after the final buzzer.
Tyson Ward scored 15, Collin Malcolm added 13 points and Mikael Jantunen had 10, including some very big shots down the stretch.
Mike James, Elie Okobo, and Mam Jaiteh scored 13 points each for Monaco which is still missing Nick Calathes and Furkan Korkmaz and couldn’t avoid a home defeat, shooting just 4/23 threes.
Monaco dropped to 3-2 in the standing with Paris being just behind them at 2-3.
Hot from the first half
Paris started the game strong, leading 49-43 at halftime, with Shorts already having 19 points and three assists.
However, in the third period, things were different. Monaco took over with a partial 21-14 score and closed the period having a one-point advantage (64-63) setting the stage for a big fight in the last 10 minutes of action.
With the game on the line, Jantunen with five straight points gave Paris the 82-79 lead with two minutes left.
Jaiteh was blocked in the next possession and Nadir Hifi made it a five-point game for Paris (84-79) with his only points in the game. Monaco couldn’t recover after that.
Photo credit: EuroLeague