Villeurbanne (AFP)

After dominating the first two quarters, Villeurbanne failed to hold on throughout the game against the Lithuanians Zalgiris Kaunas, and lost 83 to 74 for his return to competition after nearly three weeks off.

Under the eyes of a thousand spectators and Tony Parker, president and owner of Asvel, the players of TJ Parker, his brother, recorded their third defeat in as many Euroleague matches after the setbacks at the start of the season in Valencia and Milan.

Thursday evening at the Astroballe, the Rhodaniens played their first match since October 11 and a French championship match won with forceps at Cholet.

Since then, they have been stopped after many cases of Covid-19 detected within the workforce.

Asvel was deprived Thursday night of six players still in the recovery phase or at forced rest, including two of its playmakers, the American Norris Cole and the French Antoine Diot.

It was the young Matthew Strazel (18) who held this position, which he shared with David Lighty and Paul Lacombe.

The Villeurbanne started the match perfectly, dominating the leader of the Euroleague, in the racket and on the rebound.

Charles Kahudi's teammates returned to the locker room with a nine-point lead (50-41), under the leadership of his captain (13 points in 20 minutes, 18 in the end, his team's top scorer).

At the break, Kaunas coach Martin Schiller clearly identified the two areas that his team needed to improve upon returning from the locker room: better control the defensive rebound so as not to give Asvel new shooting chances and challenge the inside game. villeurbannais.

Result: the Lithuanians managed to block Villeurbanne at 24 points over the last two quarters.

With a fairly limited rotation and some very young players, Asvel gradually gave in to Kaunas, where Marius Grigonis was breathtaking throughout the game (25 points in 29 minutes of play), while Lukas Lekavicius was d 'a precious help for Zalgiris in the last quarter (13 points).

As for Asvel, Guerschon Yabusele ended the game with 17 points.

Kaunas, which lost in Valencia last week, resumes its march forward with five victories in six Euroleague games and leads the standings, while Asvel will try next week for its first success in the season in C1, on the floor of the Spaniards in Vitoria (two victories and one defeat before the reception of Barcelona on Friday).

© 2020 AFP