AS Monaco confirmed its success on the road against Real Madrid (98-74) by winning on Friday in the Efes Istanbul arena (80-78), a narrow success which brings it closer to the top of the rankings of the Euroleague of basketball at the end of the 23rd day. With this first success away from home in Europe in a month, the “Roca Team” (13 victories for 10 defeats) returns to the level of the six direct qualifiers for the quarter-finals.
It is also doing well in the race for fourth place, which offers home advantage, since it comes within two victories of Virtus Bologna (3rd) and one of Panathinaikos (4th), both beaten.
With two upcoming matches at home against direct competitors, Partizan Belgrade and Fenerbahçe, they have the opportunity to stretch their series and anchor themselves a little more in the leading pack. “These are important matches but tonight (Friday) we are just going to savor this victory” reacted Jordan Loyd to the broadcaster Skweek. Especially since this success was snatched after a cold sweat that the Monegasques could have avoided if they had better managed the last three minutes, approached with a seven lengths lead (77-70).
They allowed Rodrigue Beaubois to bring Efes within one (77-76) with a winning shot 37 seconds from the end. The French leader then thought he would equalize by doing it again 7 seconds from the end, but his shot was reduced to a simple two points after video refereeing (79-78). Then, after Elie Okobo had scored only one of his two free throws (80-78), Beaubois missed the winning attempt, behind the arc at the buzzer. “We must continue to build on this victory. With the numerous absences since the start of the season, we are still looking for ourselves collectively: we could have done better,” said Loyd.
Already decisive against Real (19 pts) for his return after a back injury, the American leader did it again (14 pts). Okobo (16 pts) was invaluable in the series which allowed ASM to widen the gap between the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth, then with his composure on the free throw in complete end of match (3/4).
