Marne-la-Vallée (France) (AFP)
Villeurbanne inflicted a real correction on Boulogne-Levallois 88 to 59 in the semi-final of the Leaders Cup, offering a demonstration of basketball for almost half an hour Saturday late afternoon in Marne-la-Vallée.
Sunday (5:00 p.m.), they will face one of the two elite coleaders, Monaco or Dijon, opposite on Saturday evening (8:30 p.m.) for the second semi-final of the Leaders Cup.
The players of Zvezdan Mitrovic will try to win for the first time the mid-season competition which brings together since 2013 at Disney the eight best teams of the first phase of the French Championship, while Asvel has already won the Week of Aces, predecessor of the Leaders Cup, in 2010.
Asvel, beaten on its floor six days ago by these same Metropolitans 92 (79-69), holds its revenge, and removes some doubts which had started to emerge after two consecutive defeats in Elite (against Boulogne-Levallois and in Chalon-sur-Saône) and the eddies caused by the criticisms of Edwin Jackson made in Le Progrès a week ago (the player was sidelined, then loaned to Spain since).
The "presidents' match", between Tony Parker for Asvel and Boris Diaw for Boulogne-Levallois, both present at the edge of the field, will finally have come to an end in favor of "TP", as Charles Kahudi's teammates have suffocated the Ile-de-France and were superior in all areas of the game.
The semblance of suspense held at the start of the game only thanks to a few losses from the Villeurbanne ball, the only small shadow on the board of Asvel, performing very well on Saturday against one of the best attacks from Elite.
The gap rose to 34 points in favor of Villeurbanne (75-41, 28th), before an inevitable relaxation at the end of the game.
© 2020 AFP