Villeurbanne (AFP)

Asvel Lyon-Villeurbanne suffered a heavy defeat (102-80) in their hall of Astroballe against Turkish club Efes Istanbul on Friday after a match of the 18th day of Euroleague totally missed by the champion of France.

A few hours after the announcement by the President of the Euroleague, Jordi Bertomeu, that the allocation of the permanent license to Asvel for the next ten years would be formalized at the end of February-beginning of March, this twelfth defeat on the European scene n is not the best effect.

Especially by its scale.

Asvel, who was already on a 22-point loss on December 30 (81-59) on the floor of Fenerbahçe, thus remains in the bottom of the standings (17th), far from its stated goals of reaching the play-offs .

She will have to offer a reaction next week in Greece, on January 13 against Panathinaikos and on January 15 against Olympiakos for their late match.

For his part, Efes Istanbul won his ninth victory for as many losses and is in 11th place.

TJ Parker's team, committing big mistakes (18 stray balls in total) delivered a first half well below expectations, conceding a handicap of 21 points in the 14th minute (25-46), barely reduced to twenty points at the break (34-54).

Asvel, still deprived of Moustapha Fall, injured in the ribs, was much too complacent, beaten in the interior sector by his opponent clearly domineering on the rebound (33 against 22) and on three-point shots (50% against 61.1%), was never able to recover from this first completely missed part.

The Villeurbannais did not know how to control Vasilije Micic (23 pts), above the lot, well supported by Bryant Dunston (14 pts), Chris Singleton (16 pts) or Shane Larkin (16 pts) or James Anderson (12 pts) ).

Conversely, the performance of Norris Cole (22 pts), the only offensive satisfaction for Villeurbanne, Charles Kahudi, William Howard and Allerik Freeman (all 11 points), did not weigh at all and above all proved insufficient to fill the gap which stabilized around twenty points in the second half, even rising to +28 in the 36th minute (99-71).

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