The French side’s defense strangled Dubai in the fourth quarter
Nando De Colo turns back the clock to inspire ASVEL comeback
Отчеты о матчах
3 Минутное чтение
Regular Season
Round 6 of 38
Regular Season
LDLC ASVEL VilleurbanneASV
8579
Dubai BasketballDUB
Overview
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They say that age is just a number and Nando De Colo proved that with his extraordinary outing against Dubai Basketball on Thursday evening. The 38-year-old was instrumental throughout LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne’s 85-79 victory, producing moments of magic on the floor and stepping up big time when the hosts needed him the most.
Eager to help his team end a three-game losing slide, the two-time EuroLeague champion hit the ground running on Thursday evening. He opened the scoring with a triple before pulling off two sublime dishes to set up Zac Seljaas and Glynn Watson, who drilled one triple each for a 9-5 lead.
De Colo finished the first quarter on 8 points, 3 assists and a rebound, with ASVEL trailing 21-24 after 10 minutes. An entertaining back-and-forth affair saw the two sides trade blows in the second, ending the first half tied at 44-44.
Dubai kicked off the third quarter with a 2-10 run, as Dwayne Bacon took over with 11 points to secure a 59-68 cushion heading into the closing quarter. Yet, an inspired Watson added 8 points to his tally to bring ASVEL within 76-77 with 2 minutes remaining.
And then he took charge.
The home crowd sighed as Armel Traore missed a couple of free throws to put ASVEL ahead, but Mbaye Ndiaye picked up the offensive rebound and passed the ball to De Colo without thinking twice. Despite having 11 seconds left for the possession, ASVEL’s veteran guard pulled up from downtown and nailed his third triple of the night for a 79-77 lead with 01:44 remaining.
“Nando is Nando,” Ndiaye told EuroLeague TV after the game. “Nando is a great player. It’s a pleasure to play with him. He’s a man for the team.”
ASVEL’s defense strangled the visitors in the fourth quarter by bagging 4 steals and forcing Dubai into 8 turnovers. Bacon trimmed the deficit to 80-79 with 00:37 to go, but De Colo came to the fore again.
The intelligent Frenchman pulled up from way deep, forcing Davis Bertans to foul him in the act of shooting. Ice in his veins, De Colo made 3 of 3 from the line to practically put the game to bed.
“What to say about Nando,” Dubai head coach Jurica Golemac said in the post-game press conference. “Nando is a legend of European basketball. It’s very hard to stop him, even at this age. He’s very experienced, very smart. He knows how to play against any kind of defense. We were not able to stop him today.”
Having tightened up its defense, ASVEL kept Dubai to just 11 points in the fourth quarter to complete a hard-fought comeback.
De Colo ended the game on 24 points - 9 of which were scored in the closing quarter - which he paired with 5 assists. He also registered 2 steals to tie another EuroLeague legend, Rudy Fernandez, for fourth place all-time with 367 in total.
“We tried to put more intensity on the court [in the fourth quarter],” De Colo told EuroLeague TV. “Tried to respect what we want, especially defensively as a team. We know that when we let [Dubai] play, they’ve got lots of talent. We started putting more effort and we just kept going.”
Famous Spanish painter Pablo Picasso once said, “Youth has no age”. And EuroLeague artist De Colo keeps painting that message vividly on the court week in, week out.
