After two successes at home, the “<a href="https://www.archysport.com/2022/01/monaco-wins-on-the-floor-of-bayern-munich-and-relaunches-in-euroleague/" title="Monaco wins on the floor of Bayern Munich and relaunches in Euroleague“>Roca Team” suffered the law of FC Barcelona in Catalonia.
AS Monaco basketball conceded its first defeat of the season in the Euroleague, heavily beaten on Wednesday in the FC Barcelona arena (86-71) for its first big test of the season in the competition, on the 3rd day .
The “Roca Team” bit the dust on its first trip, after two home successes against Maccabi Tel-Aviv (85-79) and Milan (93-80), in a Palau Blaugrana where it won for the first time in its history at the beginning of March (77-67). She was far from it seven months later, suffering her third defeat in all competitions in a season that has so far been sluggish.
Monaco took on water in the second half, overtaken in all sectors by the Catalans of Kevin Punter (21 pts), Jabari Parker (16 pts and 5 rebounds) or Jan Vesely (10 pts and 6 rebounds), who surfed on their end of the first period (6-0 after two Monegasque losses of balls, 47-39) to knock out Sasa Obradovic’s team in the third quarter. The gap crossed the 10-point mark in the 24th minute (55-44), one minute after a touchline pass from Mam Jaiteh intended for Mike James, in midfield, symbolizing the Monegasques’ difficulty in setting up their game.
Expected reaction to Bologna
Deprived on the back lines of their injured recruits Nick Calathes and Furkan Korkmaz, the latter abused forced individual solutions, notably by Mike James (11 pts at 2/9 shooting) and Jordan Loyd (4 pts at 2/9 shooting). shooting), who was playing his first match since his return last week to the club he left in the offseason. ASM was also clearly dominated in rebounding (39 to 32), notably leaving too many second chances for Barça (14), like these three successive offensive rebounds leading to a basket from Parker relegating it 16 lengths behind (64-48, 28th).
Trailing by 17 points at the end of the third quarter (71-54), she tried to come back under the leadership of Alpha Diallo (12 pts and 3 interceptions) and Elie Okobo (13 pts and 7 assists) , but was sent back to its ropes by a winning shot from Punter three minutes from the end (81-65).
They will try to raise their heads on Friday, at home against Virtus Bologna, the only team to have lost all their matches.
