Paris (AFP)
The Villeurbanne basketball players managed to stop their streak of six consecutive Euroleague defeats, winning 74-67 Sunday night in Tel Aviv against Maccabi, in a game late in Matchday 30.
For this penultimate meeting of the season, Asvel has signed its 13th success for 20 losses, and will try to finish on a good note next Thursday on the floor of CSKA Moscow, 2nd in the standings (22 wins, 10 losses) and already qualified for the play-offs of the queen of European basketball competition.
Villeurbanne plays for the second consecutive season the Euroleague in its new formula of a semi-closed league, and is sure to finish with a better record than that of last year (10 wins for 18 losses), when the competition had was prematurely arrested due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a match without a qualifying issue for the play-offs, because the two teams can no longer finish in the top 8 at the end of the regular season, the players surrendered blow for blow on Sunday, to the delight of the 3,000 spectators of the Menora Mivtachim Arena.
Asvel led by 12 points at the start of the last three minutes (68-56, 37th), but saw the Maccabi gradually come back to the mark (70-57, 39th).
The deliverance came from a raging dunk of Moustapha Fall, about twenty seconds from the buzzer (72-67).
American Norris Cole, who arrived at Asvel in the summer of 2020, has returned to the venue where he made his Euroleague debut with Maccabi (2017/18).
He finished the game as top scorer with 17 points.
"We did a great teamwork. It feels good to come back here and find the audience in Tel Aviv. We had to be ready for this fight. As a team we wanted to change the dynamic," commented the 'American from Asvel.
"Defensively, we did a very good job. Some of our players made good decisions in attack," said TJ Parker, who signed with Asvel the first victory for a French club in Tel Aviv since 1996. .
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