President Parker’s players fell on the floor of the JDA this Friday, at the start of the season.
For the debut of TJ Parker on his bench, Lyon-Villeurbanne fell this Friday in the first game of his Jeep Elite 81-74 season on the floor of Dijon, another serious candidate for the title of champion.
Propelled on the bench of Asvel in mid-June to replace Zvezdan Mitrovic, TJ Parker, brother of the ex-star of the NBA and owner of the Rhone club Tony Parker, first saw his men inflict a 12-0 to the Dijonnais at the start of the match. But the Burgundy club woke up to return to a point, only led 18-17 at the end of the first quarter. Reigning champions since winners of the 2018-19 season, the Lyon-Villeurbanne players then raced in the lead for a long time, without ever regaining a margin greater than 10 points. At the end of a narrow second quarter, they headed 30-23 at half-time, then 54-53 after a much more open third quarter.
The Dijonnais took the lead for the first time in the match at the very start of the last period, on an award-winning basket from their leader Axel Julien, by far the best player of his team (19 pts, 4 rebounds, 5 wt). The Côte-d’Or club did not let go of the lead and even flew up to 13 pts ahead during this fourth quarter. Lyon-Villeurbanne finally woke up, but too late to avoid an entry defeat.
Last season, Tony Parker’s club started with 14 straight wins, only falling on Matchday 15, in December during a trip to Le Mans. With this success at home, Dijon joins at the top of the Jeep Elite, with a victory for zero defeat, two clubs which have won advanced matches of the 2nd day played Wednesday: Boulogne-Levallois, winner of the first shock of the season in Monaco (72-62) and Bourg-en-Bresse, dominator on the floor of Nanterre (95-82). Two matches of this first day have been postponed due to cases of Covid: Le Portel-Champagne Basket and Boulazac-Monaco.
– .
