The Frenchman has seen his role increase since the arrival of coach Vassilis Spanoulis
Terry Tarpey, big men set the winning tone for Monaco against Bayern
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What was setting up to be a showdown of two 10-win teams, AS Monaco easily handled the visiting FC Bayern Munich by winning 93-74 on Tuesday night.
It was Monaco's third straight win, following wins by 20 and 30 points against ALBA Berlin and Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, respectively. It was also the team's sixth victory in the last seven games, with Monaco improving to a joint league-best 11-5 record.
Bayern entered the game with EuroLeague's best scoring offense, one posting 89.7 points per game, but Monaco held it to a season-low 74. And the facilitator of that effort was an unlikely figure in Monaco's deep roster: Terry Tarpey.
It was Tarpey's fifth appearance of the season and just his 11th since he joined the team ahead of the 2023-24 campaign. Tarpey played a total of 46 seconds through the first 13 rounds, but he has entered rotation under coach Vassilis Spanoulis, especially now that Alpha Diallo is sidelined.
And Tarpey was all over against Bayern. In 25 minutes on the floor, he finished with 8 points, 5 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks and 2 rebounds.
He set the tone on defense, harassing Carsen Edwards and Andreas Obst. Edwards did get to 17 points, but on 5-of-13 field-goal shooting, while Obst had just 5 points and was 1 of 5 from downtown.
Tarpey ran in transition, too, scoring 6 of his points on fast breaks and killing any momentum Bayern tried to gain.
Also playing a big part in this win were Monaco's trio of centers, which consists of Donatas Motiejunas, Georgios Papagiannis and Mam Jaiteh. Motiejunas scored 6 of Monaco's first 9 points to get the team going, but when Monaco fell behind by double digits in the second quarter, Papagiannis stepped up by scoring 12 points before halftime.
Jaiteh was also a big factor under the rims, and the trio combined for 25 points on 12-of-14 two-point shooting.
All of that helped Monaco cruise to a 19-point win against a dangerous opponent. Winning the last three games by a combined margin of 69 points, Monaco is flying high under Coach Spanoulis and has quietly become one of the teams to beat in the EuroLeague.