A mighty foursome carries Monaco to a blowout victory over ASVEL / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: Romain Biard / Contributor - Getty Images Credit Romain Biard / Contributor - Getty Images

In a battle between two French LNB Pro A league teams,AS Monaco (9-11) won their third straight Turkish Airlines EuroLeague match, beating the hosts, LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne (8-11)100-75 (27-24, 24-17, 25-17, 24-17).

Player of the Game EFF 29 Alpha Diallo Points 17 Accuracy 7-11 Rebounds 10 Assists 6

Donatas Motiejunas was hot in the first period, scoring his ninth point to give Monaco a six-point lead (19-13). ASVEL caught up with the visitors towards the end of the period but were still down by three points after one (24-27).

In the second quarter, Will Thomas dunked the ball in transition, Motiejunas added a deuce, and Monaco got their first double-digit lead of the contest (43-33). The visitors kept piling up points, maintaining their 10-point advantage going into halftime (51-41).

Motiejunas scored six points at the start of the second half to kickstart an 8-0 Monaco run and helped them gain an impressive lead (59-41). ASVEL weren't able to stop the bleeding, as their deficit only increased. Monaco came away with a 25-point victory.

Donatas Motiejunas, Dwayne Bacon, Mike James, and Alpha Diallo were Monaco's leaders tonight, combining for 80 points. Motiejunas finished with 23 points (9/10 2PT, 1/2 3PT, 1/3 FT), 4 rebounds, 1 block, 1 turnover, and 27 PIR.

"First of all it's a team win and I'm happy about that," Motiejunas said. "This is our goal, the goal of the season, to be in the top eight of the EuroLeague and play in the playoffs, so this win gets us closer, but you know we are looking forward to the next game against Zenit. It's an important win for us, hopefully, we can take that one too.”

Bacon added 21 points (7/14 2PT, 1/1 3PT, 4/4 FT), 6 rebounds, 2 turnovers, and 21 PIR. James had 20 points (3/3 2PT, 4/7 3PT, 2/2 FT), 7 assists, 1 rebound, 1 turnover, and 25 PIR.

"We just got to keep building, I think we are starting to get better, come more as a unit, we got everything in front of us," Mike James commented post-game." [Reaching 3000 points in my career] is nice. It's always nice to be one of a few, but it's just a win, really."

Finally, Diallo ended with a double-double, accumulating 17 points (6/9 2PT, 1/2 3PT, 2/2 FT), 10 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, 2 turnovers, and 29 PIR.

Monaco: Donatas Motiejunas 22, Dwayne Bacon 21 (6 REB), Mike James 20 (7 AST), Alpha Diallo 17 (10 REB, 6 AST), Yakuba Ouattara 10, Paris Lee 5.

ASVEL: Marcos Knight 19 (9 REB), Dylan Osetkowski 15, Elie Okobo 10 (5 AST), Chris Jones 9, Kostas Antetokounmpo 6.

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