The French team prevailed in a tense finish against Partizan
Battling ASVEL overcome adversity to snap four-game losing streak
Game Report
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 11 of 38
Regular Season
LDLC ASVEL VilleurbanneASV
8887
Partizan Mozzart Bet BelgradePAR
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LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne ground out a hard-fought 88-87 home win over Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade on Friday, snapping a four-game losing run and improving to 3-8 after the team's pack leaders stepped up to the plate in crunch time.
Glynn Watson sank a clutch three-pointer with 23 seconds left which gave the hosts an 83-79 lead, and 37-year old veteran David Lighty made a pair of free throws with the clock ticking, forcing Partizan into submission after a rugged contest.
Partizan, whose patchy form continued much to the frustration of head coach Zeljko Obradovic, dropped to 4-7 as the absence of big man Tyrique Jones forced a small-ball unit which was blown away by ASVEL'S flying start.
The home team raced into a 16-2 lead as it forced a barrage of turnovers from Partizan, but the Serbian side recovered and was able to nose ahead in the fourth quarter, only to see the French team force the final twist thanks to Watson and Lighty. The latter, who has spent a decade in two stints with the club, drew enviable praise from head coach Pierric Poupet, who couldn't stress enough the enormity of Lighty's impact on and off the court.
"David Lighty is ASVEL and ASVEL is David Lighty," Poupet said in his postgame comments. "He is a legend, a great human being, a great teammate and a great captain."
Poupet went on to commend his team for staying strong after Partizan had turned the tide, eking out the win in the face of adversity with several key players out injured.
"It's a good win, especially with the many injuries we are facing at the moment," he emphasized. "The team is exhausted and the effort they put in today was amazing. Sometimes resilience and hard work pays off and congratulations to the guys, I am very happy for them."
Lighty sank 16 points and stood out alongside Watson and Zachary Seljaas, who paced the home team on 18 points each. Seljaas credited Watson for showing nerves of steel when the chips were down, stressing that the outcome should boost ASVEL's confidence ahead of its upcoming challenges.
"It was the energy that we wanted from the start and we wanted to keep going," Seljaas said.
"We lost it a little bit at the end of the third and early in the fourth quarter, but we were able to get it back and make tough shots, playing as a team. A shoutout to Glynn Watson for stepping up and hitting some big shots in the end. We are resilient as we were able to go out there and fight adversity, come together in hard times, and it's only going to help us in the long run."
Watson, in turn, singled out Shaquille Harrison for a telling contribution of 12 points on his return from injury, giving ASVEL the impetus it needed to prevail in a titanic tussle.
"My team believed in me, giving me the ball and telling me to be aggressive," Watson said. "We had to keep fighting as every game is a new opportunity. We just have to keep stepping up to the plate like we did tonight, and Shaq gave us that spark."
Obradovic lambasted his troops for what he described as an unprofessional attitude. "It was a great opportunity for us to win but we made very bad decisions offensively at crucial moments," said the winner of a record nine EuroLeague titles with five different clubs.
"It is simply unacceptable how we played and the fans who came here to support us deserve better. Some of the players are behaving in a totally unacceptable manner - they were more focused on their mobile phones an hour before the game than on the game itself. No excuses, we have five days to pull our socks up."
Hundreds of Partizan fans made the trip and, although outnumbered, they matched the home crowd tit-for-tat with vocal support throughout the contest. However, it was the home faithful who did all the singing and dancing after ASVEL served up a memorable win.
