Zvezda rallies on the road to edge Monaco
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade rallied from an 11-point third quarter deficit to defeat AS Monaco 63-66 in the first ever EuroCup game on the soil of the Principality of Monaco. With the win Zvezda took control of Group A with a 2-0 record and Monaco dropped to 1-1.
Baskets were few and far between early on. Monaco led 4-0 after five minutes, but Zvezda answered with a 2-17 run with Mouhammad Faye, Billy Baron and Stratos Perperoglou all hitting from behind the arc. Monaco got it going in the second quarter, as Lazeric Jones and Jarrod Jones combined to score 16 of the hosts' 18 points to tie the game at 24-24. Baron's triple helped Zvezda take a 24-29 edge into halftime, but Monaco had a better start to the second half. A dunk and a triple from Gerald Robinson put the hosts in front, before a triple from Yakuba Outtara helped the hosts grab a 42-31 lead. A three from Joe Ragland snapped a 15-0 run and helped Zvezda cut the deficit to 44-37 after three quarters. Triples from Perperoglou and three-point plays from Ragland, Filip Covic and Baron put Zvezda in front 55-56 midway through the fourth quarter. Monaco tied it at 61-61 with a jumper from Robinson with 66 second left, but Ragland bettered it with a three-pointer on Zvezda’s next trip down the floor, as the visitors pulled out an important road win.
Game-changing sequence
After failing to score for more than six minutes in the third quarter, Zvezda was scoring in three-point increments in the fourth. After Stratos Perperoglou hit a pair of three-pointers, Joe Ragland followed with a basket-plus-foul and then Filip Covic did the same to tie it at 53-53, before Billy Baron’s three-point play made it 55-56.
Deciding moment
With the game tied at 61-61 in the final minute, Zvezda had the ball and found Mouhammad Faye open for a three-point shot. Faye missed, but Maik Zirbes took the offensive board. Perperoglou took the next triple, but Faye pulled down another offensive board and found Ragland who nailed a wide open three with 38 seconds to go.
Did you catch?
There were a few scoring oddities in the first quarter. Zvezda needed more than five minutes to score its very first point, but then in the remaining time in the quarter put together a 2-17 run to take 6-17 lead. The hosts had 6 points, and all were scored by Elmedin Kikanovic in the first quarter.
Next game
Next week in Round 3, both teams play on Tuesday and each faces a team coming off a big offensive performance. Zvezda hosts MoraBanc Andorra, which scored 110 points in Round 2, while Monaco travels to face ratiopharm Ulm, which put up 103 points this week.
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Eurocupbasketball.com