Winner with difficulty of the Lithuanians of Zalgiris Kaunas (69-66), Thursday evening in its Gaston-Médecin room during the 33rd and penultimate day of the regular Euroleague season, Monaco secured its place in the quarter-finals of the competition.
Authors of a meeting that was initially controlled, then complicated, with a good Donatas Motiejunas (14 points, 7 rebounds) in the wake of Mike James (18 points, 3 assists, 5 rebounds), Sasa Obradovic’s men were made afraid to the end.
They will host Bayern Munich on April 11 with the obligation to win to secure a place in the Top 4 and thus obtain home advantage during the quarter-finals, which will begin on April 23.
Monaco started very well, with its Lithuanian Motiejunas in good shape and applauded by the 350 Kaunas supporters who came to the Principality to push their team to grab a possible 10th place, synonymous with qualification for the play-ins. As his coach had requested the day before the match, James also found a good level. His team’s top scorer at the break (11 points), he also grabbed two rebounds and made two assists, to allow the Roca Team to lead by ten points at the break (39-29).
However, despite their good intentions, the Monegasques never dominated their opponents enough to be quickly assured of winning the match. Moreover, led by a good Keenan Evans, Kaunas won the very defensive and hotly contested third quarter (15-12) to come back within reach of the Roca Team (51-44, 30th).
In these conditions, the last quarter was bound to be tense. It was. After Monaco gave itself a breath of fresh air with an 8-0 in less than three minutes (59-44, 34th), during which James once again made his special, with a perfect side step (56- 44, 33rd), and John Loyd scored his first winning basket of the evening (59-44, 34th), the Lithuanians came back gradually again (62-54, 36th).
The defensive level of each team then went up a notch, especially that of Kaunas. And thanks to Brady Manek’s skill at long distance, the latter offered themselves a breathtaking finale by coming back to five points (63-58, 38th). The three free throws made by Evans (69-65) with 17 seconds remaining combined with James’ two misses 11 seconds from the end of the match amplified the suspense. But Monaco nevertheless managed to hold its advantage, with forceps.