Valencia Basket held its nerve to down AS Monaco 89-84 in a thrilling and intense first-ever meeting between these two teams at La Fonteta on Friday night. Valencia improves to 4-3, while Monaco is no longer joint-first in the standings after dropping to 5-2.
Valencia holds off Monaco in thriller, 89-84
The first half was closely contested, with both teams moving well offensively. Valencia started to take charge early in the second quarter, but Monaco came back with a 0-11 run to make it close again. The home team edged back into a double-digit lead at the end of the third, before withstanding a determined Monaco comeback to grab a priceless win. Chris Jones led Valencia with a joint-personal best 27 points, while Jared Harper added 16 and James Webb paired 15 points with 8 rebounds. Jordan Loyd paced Monaco with 24 points.
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Jones scored 10 points in the first 4 minutes, but Loyd answered with two triples to make it 14-10, before Mike James and Donta Hall connected for two alley-oops for a 20-20 tie after ten minutes. Jones stayed hot with three more scores for a 36-27 lead, but a 0-11 run pulled Monaco back to 41-40 at the break. The third quarter was a physical battle, before four baskets from Harper – including a triple and a three-point play – pulled Valencia into a 67-54 lead. Elie Okobo scored three times to pull Monaco back to a tie, 73-73, but two more scores by Jones and a couple of triples from Webb sealed the victory down the stretch.