By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Jordan Loyd and Daniel Theis were unstoppable as Monaco prevailed over Paris and made a big step towards the home-court advantage in the playoffs.
The final score was 91-79, and Monaco got the win and the tie breaker, having a 17-11 record and sole possession of the fourth spot of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings.
Loyd and Theis scored 21 points each, Alpha Diallo added 15, and Elie Okobo contributed 12.
“As coach said, it’s time to push, and it was a whole team unit; everybody on the court tonight did a great job defensively”, said Loyd after the final buzzer, with coach Vassilis Spanoulis adding, “We executed our gameplan, we were very focused on defense”.
TJ Shorts with 19 points, five assists and also five turnovers, plus Nadir Hifi with 17 points but 0/6 threes, tried their best and it was not enough while Paris made in total five out of 28 threes.
Paris dropped to a 16-12 record and the 7th spot of the standings, at least for the moment.
Monaco and Loyd with a great third quarter
With Theis scoring 12 points in the first half, Monaco got a 24-22 lead after the first period and was up by five at halftime (44-39) and by seven (46-39) at the start of the third.
Paris had just four made threes out of 17 attempts, and with the shots not falling, Monaco had the advantage and extended their lead to 17 points (56-39) after a 16-0 run and with Theis making his second three of the game and Alpha Diallo scoring one more.
Jordan Loyd, with eight straight points, made it a 20-point game (64-44), took over the game, and Monaco entered the last quarter up by 18 (71-53), and the game was over.
Paris did make it a 14-point game (89-75) with less than two minutes left but couldn’t do much more.
Photo credit: EuroLeague