2018-19Top 16Round 5
AS Monaco 61
ALBA Berlin 75
January 29, 2019 CET: 19:00
Local time: 19:00 STADE LOUIS II

ALBA advances with victory in Monaco

ALBA Berlin booked its spot in the quarterfinals of the 7DAYS EuroCup with a 61-75 victory at AS Monaco on Tuesday night. Rokas Giedraitis collected 19 points and 6 rebounds and Landry Nnoko fought off foul trouble for 10 points, 10 rebounds and 3 steals for ALBA, which improved to 4-1 in Group E. ALBA outrebounded Monaco 30-44 – including 21 offensive boards and forced the home team into 19 turnovers. Joshiko Saibou added 10 points and Luke Sikma tallied 8 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals for the winners, who will secure first place in the group if Partizan NIS Belgrade loses to Rytas Vilnius on Wednesday. Monaco, which dropped to 2-3, was paced by Lazeric Jones's 12 points on 4-for-4 three-point shooting and Derek Needham added 10 points, but Monaco’s leading scorers Elmedin Kikanovic and Paul Lacombe were held to 6 and 5 points respectively.

ALBA got off to a hot start with Nnoko scoring 6 points in building a 2-12 lead. Monaco turned the ball over six times in the first 5 minutes and a Martin Hermannsson three-pointer increased the lead to 13 points. Eric Buckner answered with a three-point play and Needham followed with a three-pointer to trim it to 10-17. But Giedraitis hit from long range just before the first-quarter buzzer for a 16-26 ALBA cushion after 10 minutes. The visitors were held scoreless for nearly the first 8 minutes of the second quarter, but Monaco could not really take advantage of it, scoring just 8 points of its own to make it 24-26. Giedraitis drained back-to-back three-pointers to start a 0-10 run and it was 27-36 at the break. Baskets by Niels Giffey and Nnoko pushed the lead to 27-40, but Monaco found some range with Lazeric Jones, Jarrod Jones and Needham all hitting three-pointers to trim the gap to 40-44. Gerald Robinson hit back-to-back layups and Yakuba Ouattara made it 46-52, but ALBA scored the final 7 points of the quarter to lead 46-59 after 30 minutes. Nnoko pushed the run to 0-9 to make it 46-61 before Lazeric Jones's three-pointer finally got the hosts on the board after 3 minutes, 49-61. Another Lazeric Jones triple cut it to 55-65 with just more than 4 minutes, but Joshiko Saibou scored 2 baskets for a 55-69 lead with under 3 minutes left and Monaco could not get closer than 10 points the rest of the way.

Game-changing sequence

Monaco had cut the deficit to 4 points late in the third, but an 0-9 ALBA surge spanning the final two quarters pushed the advantage to 46-61. The hosts did not get within 10 points the rest of the way.

Pivotal performer

Rokas Giedraitis came up with a number of big baskets for ALBA and finsished with 19 points including 3 three-pointers and 6 rebounds.

History made

Elmedin Kikanovic scored 6 points for AS Monaco to push his career point total to 1,067, moving past Tre Simmons's 1,066 points and into 10th place on the all-time EuroCup scoring list. Kikanovic has scored those points in 84 games for Crvena Zvezda Belgrade, ALBA Berlin and Monaco.

Telling numbers

ALBA grabbed 21 offensive rebounds in winning the battle of the boards 44-30. It also forced Monaco into 19 turnovers.

Next games

ALBA will host Partizan NIS Belgrade on Tuesday in Round 6. Monaco will finish off the Top 16 with a contest at Rytas Vilnius on Wednesday.

Landry Nnoko - ALBA Berlin (photo Monaco) - EC18
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Eurocupbasketball.com
Referees: GKONTAS, SPIROS; OBRKNEZEVIC, UROS ; PETEK, SASO
Attendance: 1595
By Quarter1234
AS Monaco16111915
ALBA Berlin26102316
End of Quarter1234
AS Monaco16274661
ALBA Berlin26365975
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 12:39 12   4/4     3 3 1   2     3 1 12
3 BARRY, REMI DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
4 NEEDHAM, DEREK 27:58 10 2/3 2/5   1 4 5 5   2     3   11
6 LACOMBE, PAUL 27:04 5 0/5 1/5 2/2   1 1 4   3 1   3 3 -1
8 GLADYR, SERGII 15:11     0/1     2 2 1   1     2   -1
9 KIKANOVIC, ELMEDIN 17:30 6 2/3   2/4 1   1     1     2 3 4
20 LOUBAKI, LUC DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
21 JONES, JARROD 24:14 5 1/2 1/3   1 2 3   1 3     2   1
22 ROBINSON, GERALD 26:15 6 3/7 0/3   1   1 4 4 2   1 3 2 4
23 BUCKNER, ERIC 26:35 9 4/4   1/3 2 2 4 1 1 1 3   3 6 18
24 OUATTARA, YAKUBA 16:46 8 4/6 0/3   1 2 3               6
50 JOSEPH, GEORGI 5:48   0/1       1 1     2     2 1 -3
Team           3 3 6     2         4
Totals 200:00 61 16/31 8/24 5/9 10 20 30 16 6 19 4 1 23 16 55
        51.6% 33.3% 55.6%
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
ALBA Berlin
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 SAIBOU, JOSHIKO 17:54 10 4/6 0/3 2/3   1 1 2   1   1 1 4 8
5 GIFFEY, NIELS 19:38 8 4/8 0/3   1 1 2   1       5 1  
10 SCHNEIDER, TIM 3:39           1 1           1    
15 HERMANNSSON, MARTIN 27:15 9 2/5 1/2 2/3   1 1 7 1 3       3 13
22 WAGNER, FRANZ 4:01         1 1 2     1         1
25 OGBE, KENNETH 0:04                              
31 GIEDRAITIS, ROKAS 29:00 19 4/5 3/7 2/2 2 4 6         1 1 1 19
32 THIEMANN, JOHANNES 13:49 7 1/3 0/1 5/6 1 1 2   1 2   1 1 3 5
33 CLIFFORD, DENNIS 8:40         2   2       1       3
35 NNOKO, LANDRY 16:32 10 5/10   0/2 6 4 10   3 1   1 4 3 13
43 SIKMA, LUKE 28:38 8 3/7 0/3 2/2 3 5 8 3 3 1     2 4 16
44 PENO, STEFAN 30:50 4 2/4     2 1 3 3   4     1 3 6
Team           3 3 6     2         4
Totals 200:00 75 25/48 4/19 13/18 21 23 44 15 9 15 1 4 16 22 88
        52.1% 21.1% 72.2%
Head coach: GARCIA RENESES, AITO

Head Coaches

FILIPOVSKI, SASO
AS Monaco
"Congratulations to ALBA, they were a much better team today. We started the game too soft and we allowed them fast breaks and without turnovers to lose 10 points immediately and we were chasing. Twice we came to 6 points, but that was the best we could do today. The data, which is difficult to look at, is that they had 21 offensive rebounds under our basket for a lot of second-chance points and basically here on this element, the physicalness of ALBA, they dominated. We can only congratulate them. They schooled us today in toughness... Although we prepared tactically. Basically, we lost today with energy. They were much more aggressive and tough and they outrebounded us. Even with their aggressiveness, they shot even more free throws than us. This was an amazing game from their side."
GARCIA RENESES, AITO
ALBA Berlin
"We played with focus. We had a bad second quarter because we were stuck on offense, however, we were lucky that they didn't score in this quarter. But the first, the third and the fourth were very good for us. We focused on offense and defense. And I am happy because it is not easy with our team to be at the same time in three competitions and this way we passed the second round of the EuroCup, we are in the final of the cup in Germany and we are thinking we will be in the playoff in the BBL, the German League. And this is something for our team to be proud of. But there is at the same time a big responsibility, because if we are playing twice every week, it's difficult with the travel and such, difficult to have very good concentration like we had today."

Players

NEEDHAM, DEREK
AS Monaco
"We cut it to 2, I believe and it came down to hitting 2 big three-pointers, which was basically the end of our closeness with them. 21 offensive rebounds, you can never win a game like that. We turned the ball over tremendously, which is also another poison for us. Tonight they both were terrible and even though they didn't score a lot of points, we didn't even get shot attempts because we were turning the ball over. I looked really bad out there tonight, it was kind of embarrassing. We need to do some soul searching just "
GIEDRAITIS, ROKAS
ALBA Berlin
"I think today [the key] was defense because we let them score just 61 points and I think it's a very good victory for us. We are in the next round and let's focus on that. Defense and rebounds. It was a tough game. I think our energy, because we lost our last game in the German League and we wanted to win today, we showed up I think with that energy and I think that's why we won the game. I think we need to win next week if we want to be first."
HERMANNSSON, MARTIN
ALBA Berlin
"It's a goal that we set for ourselves at the beginning of the season, to go to the quarterfinals, and now we're here. I'm really happy, especially with the defense in this game. We came ready to play defense. We kept their main scorers at low [shooting] percentages. That was the key to the win."
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