The champion remains the master. Monaco won on Sunday at Asvel (87-79), during the 4th day of Elite, the first duel of the season between the two great powers of French basketball.
ASM, victorious last season in the five confrontations between the two French teams involved in the Euroleague (two in C1, two in the championship and one in the Coupe de France), joins Paris at the top of the ranking with this fourth success.
The Villeurbannais concede their first defeat of the season, before the start of the Euroleague on Thursday. With Joffrey Lauvergne in good shape (21 pts and 3 assists) after missing almost all of last season due to a serious knee injury, they competed for 39 minutes.
“There is work, and hope when we see what we are capable of doing this evening (Sunday). For the moment they are better than us but the season is long. The goal is to be the best at the end,” Lauvergne declared on the L’Équipe channel.
Leading by seven lengths at half-time (42-35), the French interior and its partners saw the Monegasques come back to the score in the wake of Elie Okobo (19 pts and 5 assists), unleashed in the third quarter -time, before giving in in the last 90 seconds. 1 min 33 sec from the buzzer, while Asvel had the ball to come back within one possession (78-74 for Monaco), Charles Kahudi was penalized with an offensive foul on John Brown III and, in the process , Mike James drew a winning shot after 24 seconds giving ASM a seven-unit lead (81-74).
James, author of the winning shot in victory Tuesday against Saint-Quentin (77-75), had already made two important long-distance shots a few minutes earlier, to allow Monaco to create a gap (72-66) then maintain it (75 -10). He finished top scorer of the match (21 pts including 4/7 at 3 pts) with Lauvergne. “I missed my first period, I wanted to be more aggressive in the second, like the whole team,” reacted James. The Monegasque coup de grace came a few seconds later after another lost ball by the Villeurbannais (19 in total), sanctioned by Brown III (83-74 one minute from the end).