By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
AS Monaco survived a tough battle against ASVEL Villeurbanne in Game 3 of the French Jeep Elite League Finals to win 83 – 80 and take a 2-1 advantage in the best-of-five series. Sasa Obradovic‘s players have a chance to close the whole affair Wednesday (22/6) while their opponents will look to bring the series back home.
The trio of Dwayne Bacon (19 points), Mike James (16 points, on 5-22 shots, 10 assists, six rebounds) and Paris Lee (15 points on 4-4 triples) took care of most of the business for Monaco on offense. Lee also made a pair of free throws with the score 78 – 75 and 12 seconds remaining.
James Gist drained a 3-pointer and then Lee went 1-2 from the line for the 81 – 78. Monaco fouled Elie Okobo to stop him from taking a potentially game-tying 3-point attempt and ASVEL’s star hit both of his free throws.
Will Thomas made it 83 – 80 on the other end and this time ASVEL had no answer since William Howard’s three was off target.
Okobo was ASVEL’s leading scorer with 25 but struggled to hit shots from long range (1-8 3-pointers). Youssoupha Fall had 16 points plus five boards and Chris Jones scored 15 for the defending champions that led 16 – 20 in the first quarter but didn’t manage to retain their advantage.
Monaco fought back to go up 37 -27 and was ahead 39 – 33 at the break. They retained a steady lead that remained in single-digit numbers while ASVEL often got at a shooting distance but never managed to even tie the score.