Very overwhelming victory (69-98) for ASVEL Villeurbanne in La Fonteta
Valencia Basket lost this Thursday by a huge 69-98 against LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne, in whose ranks the point guard Nando De Colo, a former ‘taronja’ player, who has frustrated almost all the possibilities of his former team playing the ‘ play-in’ in this Euroleague 2023/24.
The Fuente de San Luis Pavilion hosted this match on matchday 33, penultimate of the Regular Phase, with Valencia Basket’s objective of speeding up the fight for tenth place. However, an initial triple by Paris Lee was a bad omen, as ASVEL stretched that lead to 6-15.
Brandon Davies, in the low post, and Chris Jones, from the light bulb, brought Valencia Basket closer on the scoreboard (6-8, 9-11), but the successes of De Colo and another ex like Joffrey Lauvergne made the team visitor already reached +10 (17-27) before closing the first quarter.
20 seconds into the next period there was a tremendous scare due to the blow that Mbaye Ndiaye took, after a fall while going to block Stefan Jovic in a counterattack. In fact, the ASVEL player had to be taken off the field on a stretcher and did not return to the match.
That set unbalanced the French team, which saw its rival come back to equal La Fonteta’s score (29-29), thanks to Jovic himself with the help of Jared Harper in the long shot. However, another victory thanks to De Colo (29-37) dispelled ASVEL’s doubts.
Pierric Poupet’s men maintained their advantage and even increased it until they were 38-52 up at half-time. Although the team coached by Álex Mumbrú needed to change the chip in the locker room, a partial start of 0-17 prevented that mission, breaking the game completely.
The accumulated partial of 7-27 confirmed that Valencia Basket had a utopia ahead of them, not a mere challenge. And La Fonteta became desperate when he saw the ineffectiveness of his players facing the basket. With some sarcasm, several fans applauded a basket by Xabi López-Arostegui, the first for the ‘Taronja’ team in a third quarter to forget.
As a result of three triples scored by Jones, two of them in a row, Valencia Basket at times made up a score that had been close to 40 points ahead for an ASVEL without complexes, penultimate in this Regular Phase and with its president, the legendary Tony Parker , as a witness at the foot of the track.
The fourth period was a process until the final horn, which Lauvergne took advantage of to produce points and show a good image. This defeat left Valencia Basket with a balance of 14-19, outside of a ‘play-in’ for which qualifying now only depends on a miracle in multiple ties; meanwhile, ASVEL stood with a record of 8-25.
DATASHEET.
–RESULT: VALENCIA BASKET, 69 – ASVEL VILLEURBANNE, 98 (38-52, at halftime).
–EQUIPMENT.
VALENCIA BASKET: Jones (18), Robertson (2), Ojeleye (6), Inglis (4) and Davies (9) –starting quintet–; Harper (10), Pradilla (2), Claver (3), López-Arostegui (6), Jovic (3) and Anderson (6).
ASVEL VILLEURBANNE: De Colo (19), Lee (13), Thomas (13), Kahudi (7) and Fall (9) –quinteto inicial–; Lighty (2), Jackson (12), Lauvergne (21), Yaacov (2), y Ndiaye (-).
–PARTIALS: 19-27, 19-25, 7-27 and 24-19.
–REFEREES: Paternico, Pastusiak and Balak. No eliminated.
–PAVILLION: Fuente de San Luis, 5,985 spectators.