Like last year against Maccabi Tel Aviv (3-2), where it qualified for the first Final Four in its history, AS Monaco will try, on Wednesday, in its Gaston-Médecin room to reach the last four (May 24-26 in Berlin).
However, it came close, with a missed shot by Scottie Wilbekin five seconds before the siren to put the “Fener” (led 63-62) back in front, on a possession offered by the “Roca Team” after having too late to take the previous throw-in. In the process, the latter managed to escape the all-terrain pressing of the Turks to send Donta Hall to seal the victory with a dunk at the buzzer.
A defeat which triggered the fury of certain supporters of the boiling Ulker Arena (13,000 seats), who threw a few projectiles in the direction of the Monegasques and entered the field.
Excesses for which the Turkish coach, the Lithuanian Sarunas Jasikevicius, apologized on Euroleague television.
His team had only lost twice at home this season in C1, and had always scored at least 75 points. Monaco achieved the defensive performance necessary to regain home advantage, lost from the start.
In the break (30-33), notably thanks to the awakening of Elie Okobo in the second quarter (11 pts, 13 in total), the Principality team managed to limit the second half. influence in the racket of Georgios Papagiannis and, in the distribution, of Nick Calathes.
Monaco got scared at the end of the match
Yakuba Ouattara was sent to take care of the Greek leader after returning from the locker room, and the captain also did well in attack: with a winning shot, he put ASM in the lead for the first time in the match in the middle of the third period (43-42, 26th).
Monaco no longer loosened its grip to take a small lead (56-52, 37th) after having inflicted a 7-0 on the “Fener” in the middle of an extremely defensive fourth quarter, where it waited four minutes to score his first basket of the game.
Deprived, as in match 3, of its defensive leader John Brown (shoulder), it was able to count on a decisive Donta Hall in the final minutes. The pivot, with a counter, prevented Marko Guduric from putting the “Fener” in front with one minute remaining.
In the process, Mike James, lacking skill and surrounded throughout the match as in the previous two, scored his only points of the second period (7 in the first): a winning shot giving the team a four-point lead. “Roca Team” (61-57).
It was again Hall (6 pts, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks in 20 minutes) who gave ASM a four-unit lead 40 seconds from the siren (63-59), before Guduric, with an arrow long distance, brings the “Fener” to a point 22 seconds from the end (63-62). But ASM held on to keep its Final Four objective intact (65-62).
2024-05-03 20:27:57
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