

The attendees inside Salle Gaston Medecin on Thursday night were treated to a shootout, as AS Monaco scored a season-high 101 points in its 101-88 win against EA7 Emporio Armani. As a result of this victory, Monaco improved to 13-8 and Milan dropped to 6-15.
Elie Okobo paced Monaco with 19 points, while Mike James finished with an 18-point, 10-assist double-double. John Brown added 15 points, and Jordan Loyd and Donta Hall contributed 11 apiece. For Milan, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot recorded a career-high 19 points. Naz Mitrou-Long scored 14, Deshaun Thomas and Devon Hall notched 12, and Kyle Hines had 10.
James helped Monaco get off to a good start inside the first three minutes by scoring 8 as the hosts opened a 10-3 lead, but Milan soon fought back through an inspired Luwawu-Cabarrot to cut the gap at the midway point of the quarter, 12-10. The home Monaco crowd were able to welcome new signing Chima Moneke onto the floor shortly after, and he made an immediate impression with a three-point play, 15-10. By the close of the opening 10 minutes, Monaco had a 29-22 advantage on the back of 10 points by James, while Luwawu-Cabarrot had 9 for the visitors.
After a high-scoring opening quarter, both teams' offenses continued to impress in the second quarter. Thomas finished a three-point play of his own to move up to 2,001 points in his Turkish Airlines EuroLeague career, 29-25, early in the quarter, but despite good shooting from Milan, it was unable to trim down the deficit any further. Mitrou-Long's triple made it 41-36 with 6:00 left before halftime, while Brandon Davies saw a three-pointer fall with 2:30 remaining to make it a four-point game, 52-48. But, Monaco found a way to end the quarter on a high – capped by Yakuba Ouattara's posterizing dunk on birthday boy Nicolo Melli – as it went into the halftime break seven points ahead, 57-50.
During the halftime interviews, Monaco head coach Sasa Obradovic and Milan counterpart Ettore Messina stated that they wanted to see improvements on defense, but the offensive clinic continued after the interval. Luwawu-Cabarrot was particularly impressive in leading Milan's response, providing an assist for Hines and putting more points on the board, as the visitors made it 64-60 with 6:45 to go in the quarter. Two and a half minutes later, with 4:17 remaining, Thomas reached 10 points in the game and cut the gap to one point, 69-68, after going at Monaco new boy Moneke. At 2:30, Milan tied the game after a tough layup by Luwawu-Cabarrot, but another strong finish to end the quarter by Monaco saw the hosts go on a 10-4 run to enter the final period with a lead of 80-74.
In the final quarter of play, Monaco hit back whenever Milan looked to mount a comeback. The visitors struggled to stops when they needed them, and with 5:50 left in the game, Jaron Blossomgame swelled Monaco's lead to 14 points, 92-78, after a scoring around the rim. Milan found a way to stop Monaco's offense for a couple of minutes late in the quarter, but it failed to capitalize on the other end. Eventually, Monaco put the cherry on top of the cake in the final minutes, with James getting his double-double and Blossomgame scoring in the dying seconds to cap off a 101-88 win, which is Monaco's fourth straight victory at home.