Monaco rolls to victory in Ulm
AS Monaco kept its chances to finish Group A in first place with a 63-78 road win at ratiopharm Ulm on Wednesday evening. Monaco, which had already secured its Top 16 participation, improved to 6-3 with the victory. The visitors took a double-digit lead already in the first quarter and never let it go. Dee Bost had a standout game for Monaco with 13 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists and 4 steals. The latter two numbers tied his career-highs. Paul Lacombe, Kim Tillie and Eric Buckner each added 12 points and Wilfried Yeguete collected 10 rebounds in helping Monaco set a club record with 52 boards. Andreas Obst was Ulm’s top scorer with 9 points. It was the final home game for Ulm, which dropped to 1-8.
Tillie and Lacombe shined early with 15 combined points in the first 7 minutes as Monaco jumped out to a 7-17 lead. The margin reached 12 before Gavin Schilling drew Ulm within 10-20 after one quarter. The visitors continued to roll with Buckner's slam boosting the lead to 12-28. Zoran Dragic provided an Ulm highlight with a three-pointer-plus-foul, but Monaco remained in control and scored the next 7 points for a 20-point advantage. A late Ulm flurry drew the hosts within 15 before Bost's layup made it 26-43 at halftime. Andreas Obst started the second half with his second three-pointer of the game and Christoph Philipps added free throws to close the gap to 12. Lacombe and Buckner stood out as the visitors scored 8 unanswered points to put the difference again past 20. Yakuba Ouattara free throws made it 40-62 through three quarters. Little changed after that; Ulm strung together some nice stretches in the fourth quarter, but the outcome was never in question and Monaco cruised to victory.
Top performer
Dee Bost stuffed the stat sheet for Monaco with 13 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists and 4 steals. He tied career-highs in both assists and steals and tied his own club record, which he shares with Derek Needham, in assists, too. Bost finished with a performance index rating of 24, which was his season-high.
Monaco's new records
Monaco dominated the glass en route to club records in the EuroCup with 21 offensive rebounds and 52 rebounds overall. The previous Monaco mark was 17 offensive boards in Round 5 this season against Segafredo Virtus Bologna. Its best previous rebounding effort was 44 in Round 4 at home against Ulm. The rebounding total also tied Darussafaka Tekfen Istanbul for the most in the competition this season.
Ulm stars slip
A pair of Ulm's top performers this season who were both ranked among the EuroCup leaders both saw their numbers slip. Derek Willis entered the round as the competition leader in three-point accuracy at 64.0%, but he went 0 for 3 from downtown and saw his conversion rate drop nearly 7 points. Killian Hayes was ranked fourth among qualified EuroCup players with 6.8 assists per game, but dished a season-low 2 in this game.
What's next?
AS Monaco will finish the regular season on Tuesday, December 17 when it hosts Segafredo Virtus Bologna in a game with first place in Group A on the line. Ratiopharm Ulm travels to Israel the following day to face Maccabi Rishon LeZion in the EuroCup finale for both teams.

Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Eurocupbasketball.com