2018-19Top 16Round 2
AS Monaco 75
Rytas Vilnius 70
January 09, 2019 CET: 19:00
Local time: 19:00 STADE LOUIS II

Monaco edges Rytas

AS Monaco registered its first-ever Top 16 victory by edging visiting Rytas Vilnius 75-70 on Wednesday night. The result left both teams with 1-1 records and they were later joined by Partizan NIS Belgrade and ALBA Berlin to form a four-way tie in Group E. In a game that went down to the wire, the biggest lead of the night was 13-21, which Rytas held late in the first quarter. Neither team held a lead bigger than 6 points in the second half. Jarrod Jones had 15 points and 8 rebounds in victory, Elmedin Kikanovic also scored 15 and Gerald Robinson added 14 for Monaco, which was outrebounded 29-49 and still pulled out the victory. Martynas Echodas had 13 points for Rytas, while Dominique Sutton collected 12 points plus 7 rebounds and D.J. Seeley had 10 points and 9 rebounds in defeat.

Derek Needham and Robinson each made a three-pointer to build an early 11-4 lead, but Art Parakhouski sparked a big run during which Echodas and Sutton each had a dunk, while Deividas Sirvydis and Mindaugas Girdziunas each knocked down a triple. Lazeric Jones snapped a 2-17 run with a jumper to make it 15-21 after 10 minutes. Eric Buckner and Robinson got Monaco within 21-23. Seeley hit a baseline jumper and Sutton scored inside to establish a 23-30 advantage, but the hosts scored the next 7 points, including a three-pointer from Jarrod Jones to tie the game. Sutton's basket gave Rytas a 30-32 halftime lead. Jarrod Jones had a three-point play and Kikanovic strung together 7 points, including a three-point play, to put Monaco up 40-38 midway through the third quarter. However, Rok Stipcevic hit a three-pointer for the visitors and dished a no-look pass for a Parakhouski dunk that helped Rytas take a 47-51 lead into the fourth quarter. Buckner had a pair of dunks and Jarrod Jones nailed a three, but Echodas strung together 7 points of his own, including an alley-oop dunk-plus-foul to keep Rytas in front. Another put-back from Buckner and another triple from Jarrod Jones gave Monaco a 65-62 edge, but Seeley answered with a three-pointer for the visitors. Lazeric Jones and Robinson scored baskets that put the hosts back in front, but Sutton tied it twice with close-range buckets. However, Needham hit a long jumper with 1:20 to go, which Monaco followed up with two defensive stands to keep the lead for good.

Stat sheet

Rytas outrebounded the hosts 49-29, including 17-7 on the offensive glass. But Rytas committed 20 turnovers, to only 10 by Monaco, which evened things out.

Long-range woes

Last week Monaco missed its first 17 three-point shots. This week, Monaco made its first 2 three-point shots early in the first quarter and then made just 1 of its next 16 attempts. The hosts then made 3 of 5 behind the arc in the fourth quarter.

Defense wins it

This was the fourth time this season that Monaco kept its opponents at 70 points or fewer, however the first since Round 3 of the regular season. All three of those previous performances happened in the opening three rounds of the season.

Next game

In Round 3 next week, Monaco travels to the Serbian capital for the second time this season, this time to face Partizan NIS Belgrade on Tuesday. A day later, Rytas will host ALBA Berlin.

Jarrod Jones - AS Monaco (photo Monaco) - EC18
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
Eurocupbasketball.com
Referees: PERUGA, CARLOS; JURAS, MARKO; VAN DEN BROECK, NICK
Attendance: 1525
By Quarter1234
AS Monaco15151728
Rytas Vilnius21111919
End of Quarter1234
AS Monaco15304775
Rytas Vilnius21325170
AS Monaco
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
2 JONES, LAZERIC 24:06 6 3/7 0/2         6 1 1   1 1   4
3 BARRY, REMI 8:33 2 1/2 0/1   1 2 3           1   2
4 NEEDHAM, DEREK 17:27 7 2/2 1/4     1 1 2         4 1 4
6 LACOMBE, PAUL 30:55 4 1/4 0/4 2/2 1 4 5 3 2 5     2 2 2
8 GLADYR, SERGII 5:19     0/2           1       1   -2
9 KIKANOVIC, ELMEDIN 26:08 15 6/9   3/3 2 1 3 2 1 1 1   2 5 21
20 LOUBAKI, LUC DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
21 JONES, JARROD 31:23 15 2/5 3/7 2/3 1 7 8   2 1     2 3 17
22 ROBINSON, GERALD 24:12 14 3/4 1/3 5/5   3 3 2 1 2     5 4 14
23 BUCKNER, ERIC 13:53 10 5/6     2 1 3       1   2 1 12
24 OUATTARA, YAKUBA 18:04 2 0/4   2/2   1 1   1     1 1 1 -1
50 JOSEPH, GEORGI DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Team             2 2               2
Totals 200:00 75 23/43 5/23 14/15 7 22 29 15 9 10 2 2 21 17 75
        53.5% 21.7% 93.3%
Head coach: FILIPOVSKI, SASO
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
Rytas Vilnius
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 SIRVYDIS, DEIVIDAS 9:43 5 1/1 1/2     1 1     1     3 1 2
2 SUTTON, DOMINIQUE 26:53 12 5/11 0/3 2/4 2 5 7 3 1 1 2   2 4 15
3 KRAMER, CHRIS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
6 STIPCEVIC, ROK 28:00 11 1/3 1/5 6/6   1 1 2 1 2     1 3 9
7 PARAKHOUSKI, ARTSIOM 25:14 8 3/8   2/2 3 4 7 2 1 3   1 2 2 9
9 PILAUSKAS, AISTIS 4:46                              
11 SEELEY, DENNIS 33:01 10 3/10 1/3 1/2 4 5 9 2   3   1 4 4 7
14 ECHODAS, MARTYNAS 14:46 13 5/6   3/3 1 4 5   1 1     2 2 17
18 GIRDZIUNAS, MINDAUGAS 14:13 3 0/2 1/2   1 1 2   1 3     1 1  
22 BENDZIUS, EIMANTAS 13:11 4   0/2 4/4         1 2       2 3
23 BLAZEVIC, MAREK DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
51 BUTKEVICIUS, ARNAS 30:13 4 2/4     3 4 7 2 1 3     2 1 8
Team           3 7 10     1         9
Totals 200:00 70 20/45 4/17 18/21 17 32 49 11 7 20 2 2 17 20 79
        44.4% 23.5% 85.7%
Head coach: ADOMAITIS, DAINIUS

Head Coaches

FILIPOVSKI, SASO
AS Monaco
"I am happy that we succeeded to break the ice in the second phase of the EuroCup. We are still a new team, this is Gerald Robinson's second game, we had some injuries, and I hope in 2019 we will play with the same team every game because until now we played every game with a different team. We managed to maintain high-level energy during 40 minutes. In the first half, we made too many mistakes, we were rushing on offense and that is why we made 7 turnovers. We lost the rebounding battle, they were tougher than us, they had 10 more offensive rebounds than us, but we forced them to 20 turnovers, so we made some balance. But we have to be much better at boxing out and rebounding in the games to come. Also, credit to Rytas, they are playing good and tough basketball, fighting for every ball. They have a good team and interesting young talent."
ADOMAITIS, DAINIUS
Rytas Vilnius
"Monaco is a very good team, and we were waiting for a very tough game. It was like that, with a lot of contact, a lot of physicality on the floor. The main thing for us is we made 20 turnovers and they made some easy baskets, which changed the game. We had a 6-point lead in the fourth quarter, but we had some bad decision, a couple turnovers, and they just punished us. They made some tough shots, but also had about 15 second-chance points, that makes a difference."

Players

KIKANOVIC, ELMEDIN
AS Monaco
"It was a very important game. There are only six games and you must win each home game. We were under pressure, did not play our best basketball, but it is important to win the game when you don't play your best basketball. Congrats to the guys."
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