2020-21Regular SeasonRound 11
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne 80
FC Barcelona 68
November 27, 2020 CET: 20:45
Local time: 20:45 ASTROBALLE

Last-place ASVEL upsets leaders Barcelona

In the final game of Round 11, last-place LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne bounced back from recent losses by topping standings leader FC Barcelona 80-68 at the Astroballe on Friday night. ASVEL improved to 2-7 in the standings and recorded its first home win of the season. Meanwhile, Barcelona dropped to 8-2 and saw its seven-game winning streak come to an end. David Lighty led the winners with 17 points. ASVEL also got 14 points from Norris Cole, 12 from Allerik Freeman and 10 from Charles Kahudi. Nikola Mirotic led Barcelona with 14 points while Nick Calathes added 12. ASVEL won the opening three quarters, leading 25-19 after 10 minutes, 45-36 at halftime and 65-53 at the end of the third period, and kept full control of the game until the final buzzer.

Freeman got ASVEL going with a three-pointer and Guerschon Yabusale gave the hosts a 5-0 lead. Artem Pustovyi and Mirotic quickly fueled a 0-6 to put Barcelona in charge, 5-6. Lighty struck from downtown and Moustapha Fall found his first points but Mirotic and Calathes tied it at 10-10. Lighty scored down low, Antoine Diot did better with a triple and Freeman added a layup-plus-free throw for a 20-17 ASVEL lead. Cole and Kahudi boosted the difference to 25-19 after 10 minutes. Brandon Davies hit a jump-hook early in the second quarter but Kahudi matched it with a power layup. Kyle Kuric downed a jumper before Yabusele and Ismael Bako made it a double-digit game, 33-23, after a 6-0 run. Cory Higgins and Alex Abrines tried to change things for the guests, making ASVEL call timeout at 35-28. Rolands Smits scored twice around the basket but Bako and Cole restored a 42-32 ASVEL margin. Smits kept pacing Barcelona with a jump-hook that Freeman bettered with a triple. Davies scored down low to fix the halftime score at 45-36. Freeman fired in his third triple soon after the break. Higgins hit a jumper and Mirotic struck from downtown in a 0-7 Barcelona run that Calathes capped with a layup. Lighty buried a three-pointer after a timeout and Bako dunked, giving ASVEL fresh air at 53-43. Higgins took over with a three-point play but he didn't find much help, while Lighty and Yabusele each struck from beyond the arc for a 61-47 ASVEL lead. Lighty stayed unstoppable but Kuric and Davies kept the guests within 65-53 after 30 minutes. Mirotic calmed Barcelona with consecutive layups early in the fourth quarter but Kahudi and Amine Noua kept the hosts out of trouble, 70-57, with 7 minutes left. Cole beat the shot clock with a triple and added a jumper that sealed the outcome, 75-59, with over 4 minutes remaining. Barcelona did not give up but ASVEL cruised to a well-deserved win.

Pivotal performer

Lighty was solid on defense and very effective on defense, living up to his reputation as an elite two-way player. He finished the game with 17 points on 3-for-6 two-point, 3-for-4 three-point and 2-for-2 free-throw shooting. Lighty added 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals for a PIR of 23.

Game-changing moment

As Barcelona was trying to return to the game early in the fourth quarter, Amine Noua buried a three-pointer, Cole copied him right after that and soon added a jumper that broke the game open, 75-59. Barcelona never recovered after that.

Stellar stat

Three-point shots made the difference in the game. ASVEL hit 13-of-21 shots from downtown for the club's third-best three-point shooting accuracy (61.9%) in the EuroLeague. Its total was also just one shy of the club record for most shots made from beyond the arc (14). Barcelona managed to make just 2 of 8 three-point shots (25%).

Did you know?

ASVEL broke an eight-game losing streak against Barcelona which included all seven previous showdowns this century plus the 1997 EuroLeague semifinal. ASVEL's last previous home win against Barcelona came on December 12, 1996, by 91-90 in overtime behind 21 points from Delaney Rudd.

Next game

In Round 12, Barcelona visits Zalgiris on Friday as Sarunas Jasikevicius returns to Kaunas for the first time since leaving the team. Jasikevicius coached Zalgiris for almost five seasons, leading the team to the EuroLeague Final Four in 2018. ASVEL has two games next week. It hosts Panathinaikos OPAP Athens in a postponed game from Round 3 on Tuesday. Three days later, on Friday, ASVEL visits Real Madrid for a Round 12 game.

David Lighty - LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne - EB20
Friday, November 27, 2020
Euroleague.net
Referees: LOTTERMOSER, ROBERT; ROCHA, FERNANDO; UDYANSKYY, EDUARD
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne25202015
FC Barcelona19171715
End of Quarter1234
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne25456580
FC Barcelona19365368
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
2 FREEMAN, ALLERIK 23:51 12 1/4 3/6 1/1   1 1 2 1 1   1 3 1 6
5 KAHUDI, CHARLES 24:45 10 2/2 2/3     2 2           2 3 12
6 LACOMBE, PAUL 14:12   0/2       3 3 2   2     2 1  
8 DIOT, ANTOINE 12:21 3   1/1     1 1 1   3         2
10 FALL, MOUSTAPHA 16:32 6 1/1   4/4 2 2 4 3         4 3 12
12 NOUA, AMINE 10:12 3 0/1 1/1     3 3 1 1       3 1 5
13 HAYES, KEVARRIUS 3:01   0/1       1 1     1     2   -3
21 BAKO, ISMAEL 20:27 8 2/3   4/4 2 2 4 1 2   3   4 2 15
23 LIGHTY, DAVID 26:41 17 3/6 3/4 2/2   4 4 3 2 1       2 23
28 YABUSELE, GUERSCHON 25:45 7 1/7 1/1 2/2   3 3     1 1 1 2 2 3
30 COLE, NORRIS 22:13 14 2/8 2/5 4/4   4 4 4 1 1     2 3 14
32 STRAZEL, MATTHEW DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Team             1 1     4         -3
Totals 200:00 80 12/35 13/21 17/17 4 27 31 17 7 14 4 2 24 18 86
        34.3% 61.9% 100%
Head coach: PARKER, TJ
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
FC Barcelona
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 DAVIES, BRANDON 17:26 6 2/8   2/2   1 1 4     1 1 2 2 5
8 HANGA, ADAM 10:03     0/1     1 1 1         1    
9 BOLMARO, LEANDRO 4:45 4 1/3   2/2   1 1           1 1 3
10 SMITS, ROLANDS 17:08 6 3/4     3 3 6     1     1 1 10
13 HEURTEL, THOMAS 13:20 3 1/7   1/2 1 2 3 3   3     1 2  
14 PUSTOVYI, ARTEM 6:07 4 2/3   0/1 1   1           1 1 3
18 ORIOLA, PIERRE 13:52 4 2/3   0/2 1   1           1 1 2
21 ABRINES, ALEX 25:40 2   0/1 2/2   1 1 2 2       2 2 6
22 HIGGINS, CORY 27:54 9 2/6 0/1 5/5   3 3 2 1 1   1 2 4 10
24 KURIC, KYLE 8:50 4 1/2   2/2   2 2     1     1 1 4
33 MIROTIC, NIKOLA 25:27 14 4/5 1/4 3/4 1 8 9   1 1 1   2 7 24
99 CALATHES, NICK 29:28 12 3/6 1/1 3/4   1 1 2 1 4   2 3 2 5
Team           1 1 2     1         1
Totals 200:00 68 21/47 2/8 20/26 8 24 32 14 5 12 2 4 18 24 73
        44.7% 25% 76.9%
Head coach: JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS

Head Coaches

PARKER, TJ
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne

"I am not surprised. We have been practicing well and we got a guy back like Norris [Cole] who can help us scoring points and doing all those little things. For me, defensively, we did a great job. Everything we wanted to do, we did it, so they deserved it. If we just beat Barcelona, the number one team, I think we can beat anybody in any given day. And today, we proved that we can beat anybody."

"I am really happy for the players. I am really happy because, like I always said, they work hard in practice every day. We are practicing well and I think Norris gave us a push. I think he was missing a little bit and scored some points. But I think it was a good all-around game. I mean, we were up the whole game against the best team in Europe, the best defense. It is well-deserved for the guys."

JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS
FC Barcelona
"Congratulations, first of all, to ASVEL and to TJ (Parker). I think it was a well-deserved win, they were the most physical team on the court, well-prepared in these situations. As far as from our side, we know that, like we spoke before the game, that ASVEL is one of the most – if not the most – physical teams in the EuroLeague. They have great talent and are great competitors. I don't think, like I said before the game, that they deserved to be last in the EuroLeague. They lost a lot of close ones playing pretty good basketball. And today, they played extremely well offensively. At some points, we have to blame ourselves for many things but also, they hit a lot of difficult shots. Overall, they were the team with much bigger motivation and this is what is very painful: when, in a EuroLeague game, you don't have motivation to continue this great run that we had. Hopefully, we can start a new one."

Players

LIGHTY, DAVID
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne
"I mean, we needed it! We needed it! We have been working so hard and things have not been going our way, but we kept fighting. Anybody can beat anybody; this is how it is this year. Everybody came out and played at the level that we needed, and we got a big win against a great team."
COLE, NORRIS
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne
"I was ready to play. I know what I am capable of doing out there. It was all about having confidence, the team having confidence and playing together. We played together tonight. It is a momentum boost. Obviously, we didn't start the way we wanted to start the season, but we have to take the good with the bad, so we are staying together no matter what. We are going to take it one day at a time in practice, one game at a time. And we believe that, on any given night, we can beat anybody."