Led by 21 points after three quarters, Villeurbanne managed an incredible comeback by winning at the expense of Olympiacos Le Piraeus (77-75), one of the tenors of the Euroleague, on Thursday in his hall of the Astroballe in the match of the 14th day . .
“It’s basketball. Minus 21 and we can still turn things around. That’s the beauty of basketball. That’s what we had to tell each other at halftime and we quickly realized that as soon as we ramped up our intensity level, we could offer great defense and at least be in the game,” exulted Rhone coach TJ Parker.
Olympiacos, 2nd-placed at kick-off and victorious over Turkish leaders Fenerbahçe (94-67) in Tuesday’s previous match, largely dominated the match for a long time, stating their claim to win the continental title at the end of the season. But Asvel, who sail in the second half of the table, offered a spectacular comeback and chained the fourth consecutive victory in all competitions, the third in the Euroleague after the successes of Barcelona, already feat, then against Partizan Belgrade . .
Asvel will try to confirm the sporting recovery on Sunday in Strasbourg, in the French Elite championship. But the road was long on Thursday evening on the Astroballe parquet where the Greek club, under the impetus of Sasha Vezenkov, immediately showed great effectiveness both on two points and on long shots, taking a large advantage, rising to 21 points (54 – 33 in the 27th minute).
Decisive basket from Noua
Asvel, under the impulse of Jonah Mathews (14 points), Charles Kahudi (14 points) or Amine Noua, reacted well in the third quarter which won 19-14 reducing the gap to -11 (61-50). And Villeurbannais kept coming back to come back within a point of Olympiacos thanks to a phenomenal 27-7 in five minutes (60-61, 33rd).
At the end of the match, Nando De Colo (13 points) became, in the 37th minute, making the score 70-66, the fourth player in Euroleague history to reach 4,000 points in this competition. Above all, he made two decisive free throws to give him the lead (74-73).
And, when the Greeks took the lead again (75-74), it was a three-point shot by Amine Noua in the last moments of the game that gave Asvel the victory and reason to believe it. . Still.
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