ASVEL had no answer for its French League rival
Monaco keeps its foot on the throttle en route to record night
Report partita
3 Minuto di lettura
Regular Season
Round 12 of 38
Regular Season
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AS MonacoASM
Overview
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On what ended up being a straightforward night for Vassilis Spanoulis’s AS Monaco, last season’s EuroLeague runner-up laid down a marker in its Rivalry Series clash at LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne on Wednesday.
Monaco came into the game having won seven straight games against ASVEL in the EuroLeague, with the only blot on its record being an 84-85 defeat in their first-ever meeting in Europe’s elite – a contest that saw William Howard score a buzzer-beating three-pointer from the parking lot to secure a memorable victory.
In this latest installment, Monaco’s quality showed against an error-prone ASVEL, grabbing a 52-84 win and making a bit of history in the process.
The 32-point difference between the teams, confirmed by a Juhann Begarin dunk with one second to go, ensured this was the biggest triumph in Monaco’s EuroLeague history, surpassing the 30-point winning margin it had in a 69-99 victory at Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul in 2024-25.
That’s not all. By holding ASVEL to just 52 points, Monaco set another club record for the fewest points allowed by an opponent, beating the 60 it limited Olympiacos Piraeus to in a 64-60 win in 2022-23. Coach Spanoulis’s side also made a club-record 18 steals on the night, 5 more than its previous best (both in 2021-22).
Both teams will come away feeling like they could – and should – have played better, but for Monaco it was important to get back in the winning column after suffering back-to-back losses at Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade and Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade in the double-round week last week.
“Last week, ASVEL won against Partizan and we lost there, so the EuroLeague is like this,” Coach Spanoulis told EuroLeague TV after the game. “We played incredibly good defense.”
However, there is still room for improvement.
“I think we can play much better, but for me a win is a win,” he added. “I think we played incredibly good defense – we were locked in, we were concentrated.
“For sure, we can play better. It’s still November. We have a lot of things to improve, like shooting percentages, rebounds, rhythm of the game, consistency. It’s normal, it’s November.”
For star guard Mike James, it was important that Monaco found a way to shake off its shaky start – it only scored 14 points in the first quarter – and begin to pull away, going on to lead 21-34 at the half and then 40-64 after three quarters.
“We started a little bit sloppy,” he admitted to EuroLeague TV. “I think the game in general was kind of sloppy. But we fought through, picked it up and came out with the win. Another game on the road, you’ve got to bring something from it.”
Wednesday night was Monaco’s fourth straight road game and its sixth in the last seven, but it now has the chance to start picking up some real momentum with five of its next six EuroLeague fixtures taking place at Salle Gaston Medecin, including the next three in a row.
Sitting on a 7-5 record after 12 games, don’t be surprised if you see Monaco surge up the standings as we head towards the turn of the year.
