2018-19Top 16Round 4
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne 75
Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt 52
January 22, 2019 CET: 21:00
Local time: 21:00 ASTROBALLE

ASVEL remains perfect in Top 16

LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne led from start to finish in a rout of visiting Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt 75-52 to come on the verge of qualifying for the EuroCup Quarterfinals on Tuesday night. This was the fifth consecutive win for ASVEL, which improved to 4-0 in Group F and needs just one more win – or one more loss by ratiopharm Ulm – to secure its quarterfinals ticket. ASVEL allowed single-digit points in both the first and second quarters, led 38-16 at halftime and cruised after the break. A.J. Slaughter paced ASVEL with 15 points, Theo Maledon finished with 12, Amine Noua collected 11 points and 7 rebounds while Alpha Kaba pulled down 10 rebounds. Jason Clark had 13 points for the Skyliners, which dropped to 0-4.

Mantas Kalnietis opened ASVEL's account with a triple, but baskets were few and far between from the start. Clark and Tyler Larson got Skyliners going, but only briefly. ASVEL allowed only one field goal in the last 7 minutes of the first quarter, while Miro Bilan inside and Slaughter from the outside helped the hosts to a 13-7 edge after 10 minutes. ASVEL kept the visitors scoreless for more than 3 and a half minutes in the second with David Lighty hitting a triple and DeMarcus Nelson taking it twice to the hoop to open a 24-7 margin. Clark snapped an 11-0 run, but jumpers from Lighty and Slaughter made it 28-10 with 5 minutes left in the half. Clark ended the visitors' draught, but Slaughter's triple and close-range baskets from Noua and Bilan made it 38-16 at halftime. The Skyliners failed to score 10 points in each of first two quarters, but had a lot more energy after the break and needed just over 3 minutes to score 10 points behind Jonas Wohlfarth-Botermann, whose put-back cut the deficit to 44-28. However, triples from Kalnietis and Slaughter restored a 20-point margin before Maledon had a runner and a dish for a dunk by Kaba, who made it 58-33 after three quarters. In the fourth, Maledon's steal and a fastbreak dunk set a 62-33 score after 2 minutes and Clark hit a triple, Skyliners' first of the night, with 5:12 left in the game. The visitors hit a few more from downtown, but it was all too little too late.

Quarterfinals in sight

ASVEL can qualify for the quarterfinals already on Wednesday if Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar defeats Ulm on the former's home floor. That outcome would qualify both ASVEL and Lokomotiv. ASVEL has not been in the quarterfinals since its competition debut in the 2005-06 season.

Stellar defense

ASVEL allowed just 16 points in the first half, which is tied for the fourth-fewest points scored ever in the first half of a game in the competition and the fewest in more than 14 years. Frankfurt shot 0-for-9 from three-point land and had its first assist after 14 minutes and 35 seconds of the contest. The 52 points are tied for the second-fewest ASVEL has allowed in a EuroCup game.

Five-game streak

This is ASVEL's second five-game winning streak of the season. The first one started in Round 2 of the regular season.

Next game

Both teams will be on their respective home floors next week in Round 5 on Wednesday. Skyliners will host fellow German side Ulm and ASVEL welcomes Lokomotiv.

AJ Slaughter - LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne (photo Infinity Nine Media - Alexia Leduc) - EC18
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
Eurocupbasketball.com
Referees: FOUFIS, IOANNIS; NEDOVIC, MILAN; RADOJKOVIC, JOSIP
Attendance: 5347
By Quarter1234
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne13252017
Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt791719
End of Quarter1234
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne13385875
Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt7163352
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
6 MALEDON, THEO 24:30 12 3/5 2/4 0/2   2 2 3 1 1     3 3 11
7 KABA, ALPHA 21:34 8 2/7   4/4 4 6 10 1 1 2     2 2 13
8 SLAUGHTER, AJ 17:52 15 3/4 3/4             2     3   8
9 KALNIETIS, MANTAS 14:42 8 1/2 2/4     1 1 2   2     3 1 4
11 GALLIOU, CHARLES 7:44   0/1                   1     -2
12 NOUA, AMINE 22:15 11 4/6 0/2 3/4 1 6 7 1 1 2     1 3 15
14 SOW, KHADIM 8:54 2 1/2     1 1 2 1         2   2
15 BILAN, MIRO 16:23 6 2/5   2/4 1 4 5 2       1 2 3 8
20 NELSON, DEMARCUS 16:32 4 2/5 0/1   1 1 2 1 1       1   3
23 LIGHTY, DAVID 21:54 8 1/5 2/2   2   2 2     1 1 2 1 7
24 BRIKI, SOFIANE 4:12     0/1                       -1
55 KAHUDI, CHARLES 23:28 1 0/2   1/2 1 3 4 1   1 2   3 5 6
Team           3 4 7     2         5
Totals 200:00 75 19/44 9/18 10/16 14 28 42 14 4 12 3 3 22 18 79
        43.2% 50% 62.5%
Head coach: MITROVIC, ZVEZDAN
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 CLARANCE, ELIJAH 9:46   0/4     2 1 3   1 2     2   -4
3 ZEEB, GARAI 21:50 5 1/3 0/1 3/4         1 2     1 3 2
5 CLARK, JASON 21:14 13 5/10 1/1   1 1 2 1 1 1       2 13
7 HUFF, SHAWN 20:53 4 2/3 0/3   3 3 6 1     1   1 4 11
9 FREUDENBERG, RICHARD 25:26 3 1/4   1/2   1 1 2 1   1 1 3 1 1
18 WOHLFARTH-BOTTERMANN, JONAS 21:14 8 3/4   2/6 2 4 6   1 2     4 5 9
23 ROBERTSON, QUANTEZ 28:02 6 1/5 1/4 1/2 1 5 6 4   2 1 1 2 3 7
31 HOLDER, TRA 15:34 3 0/1 1/3         1   1          
33 VOELLER, MARCO 12:27 1 0/3   1/2   1 1     1   1 4 1 -7
55 LARSON, TYLER 23:34 9 3/6 1/5     3 3 2         1 3 9
Team           5 2 7     3         4
Totals 200:00 52 16/43 4/17 8/16 14 21 35 11 5 14 3 3 18 22 45
        37.2% 23.5% 50%
Head coach: HERBERT, GORDON

Head Coaches

MITROVIC, ZVEZDAN
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne
"It was an important game to go to the next level. Frankfurt signed two new players and you never know how a team can react. My players put a maximum effort, defensively first of all, and they really showed a good quality game tonight. I don’t like games when you are an absolute favorite going into the game. I prepared the guys to play maximum good defense. And the last months we had big problems on offense, we played bad offensively the last couple of games. Tonight we started easy, and when you play good defense, things open up on offense with fast breaks. You cannot play one thing without the other. My team likes to play aggressive defense and develop the offense from that."
HERBERT, GORDON
Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt
"Congratulation to ASVEL. I like our effort, I like our togetherness, but we really struggled on the offensive end sometimes. We had a tough practice last night, almost two hours, and an hour and a half this morning. We had six guys injured, we got two new players, we have a couple guys coming back with other guys still out. We are in a transition period; we treated this game as a practice game to get better because of our situation in the EuroCup."

Players

SLAUGHTER, AJ
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne
"We played tough defense from the beginning. We knew we had to play hard against this team. Four games, four victories, it is very important, we put ourselves in a great position to go to the next round. We have two more games to play strong."
NOUA, AMINE
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne
"We did a good job tonight, we have to go on. When we follow the game plan, we know how hard and tough we can play. First place of the group is our goal! We have two more games and we’ll try to stay with no losses in the Top 16."
LIGHTY, DAVID
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne
"We talked before the game about trying to get a rhythm on offense. We’ve been playing a little slow lately, so locking up on defense like we usually do and getting the rhythm on offense. We are not thinking about quarterfinals. We go game by game and step by step, and see what happens."
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