By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Barcelona put on a balanced effort on both ends of the floor to defeat ASVEL Villeurbanne 80 – 67 at home and improve its EuroLeague regular-season record to 11 – 3.
ASVEL dropped to 6-7.
Alex Abrines scored a season-high 16 points on 4/8 triples while Cory Higgins added 13 points for Barcelona. Nikola Mirotic contributed 12 points and Brandon Davies 10.
“I think we played great from the beginning to the end,” Abrines said to EuroLeague TV. “We know it is not a team with a great name, but that makes the game even more difficult. I think our focus was perfect. Of course, we had some mistakes, but we played aggressively. Lately, I’ve been scoring more, I feel comfortable playing. I understand finally how Coach wants me to play and as long as I can help the team win that is the most important thing.”
For ASVEL, David Lighty had 16 points and six rebounds. Charles Kahudi scored 12 and Theo Maledon with Amine Noua 10 points apiece.
Barcelona went up by 18, 76 – 58, with three minutes left following a triple by Abrines which capped an 11-0 run for his team. The Blaugrana previously held multiple double-digit leads in the game from which ASVEL was unable to completely recover.
Focus and defense
Barcelona head coach Svetislav Pesic had a multitude of reasons to be pleased with his team’s win since ASVEL has proven to be a rather tricky opponent. Even against contenders.
“I am very happy. We played against one team that plays team basketball and a team that didn’t give up until the end of the game. That is not easy,” Pesic said. “Physical, athletic, they always believe, they have confidence, they never give up. And to control the game and win in the end, it might not be the biggest win of the season, but I am satisfied with how we played. I think we were very focused, especially on defense, and especially in point guard defense to eliminate good organization. That is a team that knows what it wants, to keep the ball and move the ball. They made 66% of their three-pointers in the first half, and maybe the little problem was we had some unnecessary turnovers, especially in the third quarter when we were up 16 or 17 points and we brought them back in the game. But we finished the game well and we deserved the win.”
Photo: EuroLeague