By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
The first French derby of this year’s put up against each other a resilient Cholet Basket hosting SIG Strasbourg, which performed great in the regular season. Coming back from a 16-point deficit, the red-and-white side could celebrate at home with the 98-93 victory.
Emmanuel Nzekwesi was almost perfect from the field (8/9), ending with 23 points and 6 rebounds to dominate at the rim for the home team. Despite some composure problems, getting called a technical foul late in the night, Craig Randall II contributed with 19 points. Both Vojtech Hruban (5/6 from three-point range) and Gerald Ayayi added 18 points.
On the other side, Phil Booth had a very complete performance of 17 points and 8 rebounds with 6/12 from the field. He has now scored more than 12 points in each of his seven games in this year’s Basketball Champions League. Paul Lacombe had a 24-PIR night with 13 points, 6 boards, and 5 assists.
SIG Strasbourg got the early 16-point lead (22-6) at 4:37 minutes in the first quarter, but Cholet quickly answered with a 17-1 scoring run. Massimo Cancellieri’s team then ran away once again before being overtaken by the home side in the third quarter. From then on, they maintained the advantage.
Laurent Vila’s team had a huge contribution from the bench, as Cholet’s players who didn’t start the game scored 51 of the whole 98 points collected over SIG Strasbourg. They were also better in points from turnover (20 vs 9).
With this victory, Cholet Basket has now extended its winning streak in the Basketball Champions League to three games, its longest ever in the competition. They have now scored 90 or more points in each of their last three games in the league, as often as in their first 13 league games.
PHOTO CREDIT: Basketball Champions League