Monaco Gets Revenge with Narrow Victory Over Valencia in Euroleague Match

Outclassed two days earlier on their floor by Milan, the Monaco players were due a revenge this Friday against Valencia. A new meeting within reach of Sasa Obradovic’s men, who were keen to forget their odd mistake of the week failing to fully capitalize on this week in two Euroleague matches at home.

Despite a performance that could still be improved, the Monegasques at least provided the essentials by winning against their Spanish opponents (79-78). A game which saw the Roca Team, well helped by a fiery Jaron Blossomgame (17 points, career record in the Euroleague), quickly take the advantage in the score and hold it despite a little scare at the end of the match.

Jaron Blossomgame, X-factor of the first half

The Monegasque power forward launched his great evening perfectly by scoring 11 points in the first quarter alone. Enough to quickly give the Principality club an advantage of 10 points (14-4), retained after ten good first minutes (25-15).

The start of the second quarter was less conclusive for the Rocher team, who lost numerous balls (9 in the first half, including 5 for Elie Okobo). These small errors allowed Valencia to stay in the game with a 9-2 (27-24), which did not prevent Monaco from maintaining a slight advantage halfway through (38-34).

Mike James does the SHOW 🔥@ASMonaco_Basket x @EuroLeague#SKWEEKLive #EveryGameMatters pic.twitter.com/I58Gv9DG21

— SKWEEK (@skweektv) March 22, 2024

Eye-catching Valencians until the end

Returning from the locker room, Matthew Strazel (7 points, 6 assists) and his teammates tried to pick up the pace but Valencia responded well with former Villeurbanne Chris Jones (15 points, 5 assists) or Semi Ojeleye (22 points, 6 rebounds). Without managing to widen the gap, Monaco retained the lead but nonetheless remained under threat from the Valencians ten minutes from the final buzzer (57-54).

The match took a very bad turn for the locals, who saw the Spanish inflict a 12-2 advantage on them for the first time in the match. To which Monaco, which benefited from the awakening of Mike James (17 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists), responded with a 13-3! While Monaco had once again widened a small gap, Valencia resurfaced in the final seconds without managing to get back in front (79-78).

🥵 𝘾’𝙚́𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙩 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙪𝙙 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙦𝙪’𝙖𝙪 𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩, 𝙢𝙖𝙞𝙨 𝙡 𝙖 #RocTaeam 𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙨𝙖 𝙫𝙞𝙘𝙩𝙤𝙞𝙧𝙚!💥

🧨 In a heated atmosphere, ASM put on a show and resisted in money time to win on the wire 🆚️ @valenciabasket 🔐#RocaTeam… pic.twitter.com/z4vKvReiEj

— AS Monaco Basket 🇲🇨 (@ASMonaco_Basket) March 22, 2024

It was a close call, but Monaco did well at the end of the match which could have gone the wrong way. A victory as short as it was precious for Sasa Obradovic’s men, who took advantage of it to temporarily regain third place in the Euroleague. They will have three matches left to play between now and the end of the regular season, including the next one on the ASVEL floor next Thursday.

Boxscore Monaco – Valence / Euroleague standings

2024-03-22 20:16:25
#shining #Monaco #moves #beating #Valencia