The visiting team’s big man racked up 22 points and 4 steals to propel his team in Lyon
Tyrique Jones stood out as Partizan got sweet revenge on ASVEL
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Regular Season
Round 21 of 34
Group Regular Season
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Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade took a big step toward staying in the postseason picture with a resounding 62-93 road demolition of LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne, thanks to huge performances from center Tyrique Jones and guard Iffe Lundberg.
The outcome was a full reprieve for Partizan after the Serbian team lost the reverse fixture 79-82 last month, as it steamrolled the hosts this time with Jones pouring in 22 points while Lundberg netted 18.
The all-around dominance left visiting head coach Zeljko Obradovic, normally a hard customer to please, for once purring with delight as his men trampled ASVEL in all departments from start to finish.
“We played good basketball,” the winner of a record nine Turkish Airlines EuroLeague titles said in his postgame comments. “We had to forget that we were up by 11 at halftime in order to play hard in the third quarter, it was a joy watching my team’s defensive effort while we were very smart on offense. Up next is Milan and it’s never easy to play twice in 48 hours but it’s the same for both teams.”
Partizan faces EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, which is also in good form, in an effort to avenge another tough home loss, 81-88 in November, which came during a dreadful start to the season that saw the Serbian side lose eight of its opening 10 games.
Obradovic’s men have since clawed their way back into the postseason hunt by winning eight of their next 11, meaning that they need to keep up the good work if they are to avoid missing out on the business end of the competition for a second successive season. Lundberg, who sank 4 of 6 from downtown, made the point that Partizan clicked at just the right time as the Serbian outfit can ill-afford too many slip-ups in the final third of the regular season.
“I expected us to come out and produce a strong effort,” the Danish guard said. “We knew they would play with intensity but we are starting to find our groove and we’re taking it one game at a time. Considering the standings, the mindset has to be that every game is like a final for us and if we play our hearts out, hopefully we’ll win more than we lose down the stretch.”
Jones highlighted that an unselfish approach, which saw everyone except Aleksej Pokusevski score on Partizan’s shorthanded roster, paid off with the visitors making light of the absence of several key players.
“We locked in and tried to play defense to execute the game plan,” said Jones, who had a large band of away fans in raptures with an array of spectacular slam dunks. “That’s how we’re supposed to play – move the ball, play for one another and take the best shots available,” he added.
ASVEL head coach Pierric Poupet conceded his team looked flat throughout the lop-sided contest, with the home side’s top performer Theo Maledon blown away by Partizan’s aggressive defense which had the talented guard shoot 0 of 6 from the floor.
“Today, we just couldn’t do it,” he said. “We lacked energy and couldn’t find points inside, hence our game became static. They were just better than us tonight, they hit tough shots and everything went their way. We now have to recover and move on to the next one.”
Up next for ASVEL is a home game against the competition’s bottom team ALBA Berlin and a chance to get back to winning ways after a painful loss to Partizan.