Joventut answers every ASVEL attack in opening win

U18 Joventut Badalona shook off a subpar first quarter and held off U18 LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne to open its Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Valencia with a 67-57 victory in Group B. Joventut gave up just 6 points in the second quarter and never trailed once it took the lead with Miguel Allen leading the way as he collected 19 points and 15 rebounds. Conrad Martinez added 17 points, 4 assists and 12 fouls drawn and Iker Montero chipped in 11 points for Joventut, which was the U18 continental champion in 2013. ASVEL, the only non-Spanish team in Group B, got 17 points and 11 rebounds from Kymany Houinsou with Daryl Doualla tallying 16 points and 7 rebounds and Killian Malwaya scoring 14 points in the loss.

Doualla’s three-pointer opened the scoring for ASVEL with Allen getting Joventut’s first points. Doualla drained another triple and the French side led 4-12. Martinez came off Joventut’s bench and hit a three-pointer. Montero was also on target from deep as the team trailed 13-18 after 10 minutes. Kenny Kasiama’s basket early in the second quarter made it 15-20, but ASVEL just could not score after that. Isaac Nogues scored 8 straight points in a 12-0 run over nearly 6 minutes as Joventut surged ahead 27-20. Houinsou got 3 points at the other end, but ASVEL was down 31-24 at the break.

Doualla started the second half with a triple only to see Joventut extend the margin to 35-27. ASVEL tallied the next 7 points to pull within 35-34 and it was 42-41 as well, but Martinez and Allen were able to answer for Joventut with Allen’s three-pointer making it 48-43 after 30 minutes. Malwaya scored three times to cut the gap to 3 points, but Joventut each time had a response and a 6-0 spurt put the lead at 58-49. Allen scored twice more to give Joventut a 62-51 cushion with 4 minutes left, which proved too big to come back from for ASVEL.