Cholet pushed the French champions to their limits, but Asvel got their ticket to the last four for the third time in a row by winning (84-82) on Sunday at home in the quarter-final support match of final.
TJ Parker’s players will face Dijon in the semi-finals, this time best of five. The first act is scheduled for Wednesday 1is June in Villeurbanne. First in the regular season, Élie Okobo’s teammates (17 points, 20.7 points average over the series) will have home advantage against David Holston’s partners (5e), which released Limoges (4e) in two rounds.
A burning offensive rebound with five seconds remaining
The second semi-final will oppose Pau-Lacq-Orthez (6e), Boulogne-Levallois scorer (3e) in two sets, to the winner of the support match between Monaco (2e) and Strasbourg (7e) Monday in the principality.
Surprise winner in the first leg at Astroballe (74-70), Cholet (8e of the regular season), beaten at the Meilleraie on Friday in the return match (66-82) was playing his first play-offs in ten years and again offered remarkable resistance during this support match, under the eyes of Giannis Antetokounmpo , the 2021 NBA Finals MVP, visiting Villeurbanne with his brothers Thanasis and Alex to support another family member, Kostas. But the Villeurbannais pivot did not come into play.
Another pivot from the Lyon workforce had an impact at the end of the match to get rid of Cholet. The experienced James Gist (9 points, 7 rebounds) indeed recovered a burning offensive rebound five seconds from the end after the last shot missed by teammate Chris Jones, while Asvel was not safe with two points ahead.
Gist and Knight, the strong men of the finale
With the back Marcos Knight, who had caused a loss of ball from Dominic Artis on the previous possession for a possible equalizer, Gist, author of the last Villeurbannais basket – a powerful one-handed dunk at one minute twenty from the end – was the strong man of the last minutes to repel the last attacks from Cholet.
Laurent Vila’s players were most often behind in the score but never dived when Asvel, carried by their outside address (12 out of 24) and a big defensive pressure at the start of the third quarter, after the entry of Victor Wembanyama (7 points in nine minutes) in mission on Yoan Makoundou, took ten then eleven units in advance.
Despite the loss of the ball and difficulties in rebounding (12 offensive takes for Asvel), Cholet responded systematically, relying on winger Boris Dallo (17 points to 6 out of 9) and on his new nugget Yoan Makoundou (20 points at 8 of 12 on shots including 15 in the first half).
To the point therefore of making the champions of France doubt until the last possessions, a sign of the quality of a Mauges team which has continued to advance in recent weeks, when it was relegated at the end of December.
Asvel, she passed through the drops and is prevented. The path to the finals is not paved with roses. She especially hopes not to have lost her captain Charles Kahudi, injured in the first half, and left the field supported by Elie Okobo and Chris Jones.
