The French side held off a late comeback attempt from the visitors to come away with the victory
Paris Lee game-winner rewarded ASVEL for strong performance
Paris Lee came up big when it mattered most as the LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne guard delivered the game-winning three-pointer to reward his team for an impressive performance against Anadolu Efes Istanbul, although the French side almost let it slip away.
ASVEL had seen its 18-point fourth quarter lead melt down to one with 29 seconds let before Lee waited in the corner for Nando De Colo’s pass and buried the shot with 4.8 seconds left to wrap up an 84-80 victory.
"That’s what we expect from him – to make big shots,” ASVEL forward Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot said of Lee, who had missed the game last week due to illness and did not start against Efes. “He just came back and we know he needs time to get his wind back. But he played great. He let the game come to him and made the big shot.”
A morale-boosting victory
Lee’s triple saved ASVEL from giving away the game and it gave his team a second straight home win, as well as a 4-6 record in the 10 games since Pierric Poupet took over as head coach before Round 20.
“My players stayed together and they were focused. That made the difference,” said Poupet, who was an assistant coach under both previous coaches this season. “We played great for 34-35 minutes to give us a little advantage. I’m just proud of them. They deserved the win. And they deserve to enjoy the night.
“We all have to prove that ASVEL can be a EuroLeague team. Since January, we have done a good job bouncing back all together. We want to get more wins. But we need to stay humble, work and see what happens.”
ASVEL showed it has the personnel to dominate a game. For big chunks of the game, Efes had no answer for the big man duo of Youssoupha Fall and Mbaye Ndiaye. The former scored 8 points in the first quarter alone and ended with 10 points, 4 rebounds and 2 blocks. The 25-year-old Ndiaye, meanwhile, chipped in 8 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks of his own.
Those two helped ASVEL win the battle of the glass 39-24, including 10 offensive rebounds, for a 13-8 advantage in second-chance points.
ASVEL’s 15 turnovers nearly cost the team the win – including a fourth-quarter stretch of four turnovers within 62 seconds. Efes committed just 7 turnovers and built a 25-8 advantage in points off turnovers.
In the end, Luwawu-Cabarrot scored 21 points to lead the team and Deshaun Thomas collected 20 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists for a PIR of 27, besting by 17 his top PIR this season and outdoing his previous high in points for ASVEL by 9.
“I am proud of my teammates for believing in me and trusting me and giving me the ball where I needed it,” commented Thomas, who joined the team in early January and made his debut in Round 22.
ASVEL has already been eliminated from making the postseason, but Poupet’s team can still play the role of spoiler. Four of ASVEL’s five remaining opponents are in the top 10 and the other, Valencia Basket, is currently in 11th place.