Asvel remains at the foot of the wall. Against Alba Berlin, the Villeurbannais recorded their sixth defeat in a row in the Euroleague (80-82) on Thursday evening. Unlike a spectacular recovery in BetClic Elite, where they are now joint leaders with Boulogne-Levallois and on a current series of eight victories, the Villeurbannais continue to plunge on the continental front. They are now 15th (9 wins – 17 losses) and overtaken by their German executioners of the evening, logical winners, even if it was necessary to wait for the final possession and a very last counter by Jaleen Smith on Chris Jones to validate the success in Berlin.
Asvel has had too many moments of distraction to win. Guilty in the first half of having let the German leader, Maodo Lo, play too much as he pleased, Villeurbanne did not however trail far behind (40-43), but immediately got into the hard part of the second act, with guilty defensive oversights behind the winning line, which Jaleen Smith, again, feasted on, pushing the band to the Parker brothers at eleven lengths (43-54, 24th). It took a big rant from the Villeurbannais coach for his soldiers to finally defend the lead. Villeurbanne returned to the fight, carried in attack by the tandem, Paul Lacombe (18 pts) and Chris Jones (22 pts).
Alba crucifies Asvel behind the arch
There was a little more life, a lot more desire, but all that was needed was a defensive absence on the outer posts, an open breach, dropped rebounds (39 to 25 for the Germans in this area) to that Alba, rather skilful and intelligent in reading, does not redo once, twice a small gap and crucifies Asvel behind the arc, with a 12/26 at three points in the end! Like this award-winning interior designer Johannes Thiemann, who fell after possession and gave Berlin an eight-point lead with 56 seconds remaining. A crippling gap, it was thought, that Asvel nevertheless failed to fill, under the hooves of Chris Jones and helped by a few German cagades at the very end. But Asvel, mistress of money-times in the league in recent weeks, this time remained at the foot of the wall.
