Diaw double-doubles Levallois wins, KOs Andorra

Levallois Metropolitans finished its home season in the 7DAYS EuroCup with a 99-92 victory over MoraBanc Andorra on Wednesday and in doing so eliminated the road team from Top 16 contention. Roderick Odom paced five Levallois players with 18 points while Boris Diaw had a double-double of 15 points and 10 assists to go with 3 rebounds and 3 steals. Klemen Prepelic added 17 points, Gavin Ware had 12 and Sylvain Francisco chipped in 10 points and 6 assists in helping already-eliminated Levallois improve to 2-7. Andorra dropped to 3-6 despite Andrew Albicy scoring 18 points, while David Walker and Jaime Fernandez tallied 14 points apiece. Both teams scored season highs in points in the game.

The game started like a track meet with Jaka Blazic scoring Andorra’s first 5 points and Travis Leslie and Prepelic hitting from long range early on. A John Shurna triple evened the game at 8-8. But while Andorra missed a couple of shots, Levallois refused to miss with Diaw hitting a second basket and Prepelic netting 7 points in an 11-0 run to open a 19-8 cushion. Francisco and Odom both knocked down threes as the advantage grew to 27-15; Levallois had hit its first 10 shots - five of them from long range - and 2 free throws. Remy Lesca missed Levallois’s first shot with two minutes left in the first quarter and Vladimir Jankovic answered with a three-pointer. The gap was only 29-25 after 10 minutes. Lesca nailed a long three early in the second quarter, but the guests got 5 points from Jankovic and evened the game at 37-37. Walker came off the Andorra bench and had a big spurt with 3 three-pointers and a block in a 6-15 surge to nose ahead 49-52. Free throws by Blazic and Albicy at the other end pushed the advantage to 51-56 – and Andorra led 53-56 at the intermission.

Veteran Louis Campbell came off the Levallois bench for the first time to start the second half and scored two baskets and Prepelic nailed another triple in a 13-2 run by the hosts in the first five minutes of the third quarter for a 66-58 cushion. Back-to-back baskets from Ware increased the margin to 71-60. Fernandez did his best to keep Andorra alive with free throws and a three-pointer and the visitors were down 75-67 after three quarters. Ware continued his strong game with a basket and Lesca knocked down a triple as the lead increased to 15 points. Walker was able to convert a three-point play in helping Andorra get to within 85-77, but Diaw hit a three-pointer late in the shot clock and then assisted on a Prepelic basket and the lead was back up to 90-77. After one more comeback attempt from the guests, Odom nailed a big three and twice scored inside to keep Andorra at bay.