Sad week for the Mets! 48 hours after the slap suffered in Monaco (107-76) in the round of 16 of the Coupe de France, Vincent Collet’s players experienced a new disillusionment. Despite an untenable, incandescent Victor Wembanyama, with 29 points, 16 rebounds, 3 blocks and 1 assist, they were beaten (65-72), Friday evening, in a packed Arena Saint-Étienne Métropole (4,200 spectators), by the Asvel during the 4th quarter-final of the Leaders Cup day. A competition, back after two years of absence, which brings together the eight best teams of the first leg of Betclic Elite and which saw a little earlier in the day Monaco, the great favorite, kicked out of the test by Bourg -en-Bresse (102-92).
But if the Mets did not exist on the Monegasque rock on Wednesday, this time they sold their skin dearly against the other heavyweight in the championship, the other tricolor representative in the Euroleague.
Authors of a delicate start to the match, the Mets were quickly put on the ropes, pushed back several lengths (6-16, 5th then 20-34, 15th). With his 15 points, 6 rebounds, one block and one interception at the break, Wembanyama keeps his team afloat and shows the way forward. Upon returning from the locker room, a transformed Boulogne-Levallois formation reappears.
Despite a staff on one leg, reduced to 6 players, with the absences of Tremont Waters (concussion), Hugo Besson (hip), Justin James or even Andzejs Pasecniks – who left the club this week from a mutual agreement after a flash and 10 lackluster matches on the clock – Vincent Collet’s players pick up the coattails of their opponents at the start of the last act (57-60, 32nd). The suspense is revived. The fight is intense.
De Colo, this genius
In the first leg of the championship, the Mets had already reversed a badly embarked situation and snatched victory thanks to a tap-dunk from Wembanyama in the last moments (84-83). The entire Mets bench begins to hope to relive such a scenario. Unfortunately for them the exit – temporary – of Wembanyama, following a blow on the right knee, will break the momentum.
Asvel and his genius Nando de Colo, recently become the best scorer in the history of the European Cups, take the opportunity to regain their distance. Definitively ! Barely beginning the Leaders Cup adventure is already over for the Mets.
Two eliminations in two days and these are already two trophies that escape Victor Wembanyama and his partners this season. Dolphins of Monaco in Betclic Elite, they only have the championship left to try to fill the club’s trophy cabinet. And the prodigy of French basketball will be keen to finish the season well before flying to the NBA. To achieve this he can count on the interior TaShawn Thomas (2.03 m, 29 years old) who was recruited by the Mets on Friday.
