The visitors produced a flawless performance for their biggest win of the season
Vintage Partizan crushes ASVEL, 62-93
Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade issued a statement of intent with an overwhelming 62-93 win at LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, which improved the Serbian team’s regular season record to 10-11 while the hosts dropped to 9-12.
Big man Tyrique Jones led a ferocious Partizan pack with 22 points in as many minutes on the court, shooting 9 of 10 from the floor as his only miss came by way of fumbling an alley-oop.
Iffe Lundberg produced his most impressive performance of the season to register 18 points, as Sterling Brown chipped in with 16 and Brandon Davies added 11. At the other end, Melvin Ajinca was the only home player in double digits with 14 points.
Game Videos
Partizan hit top gear from the start as the visiting team sank 6 of 7 shots from deep in the first quarter, with Brown nailing 11 points to propel the Serbian side into a 20-31 lead at the end of the opening period. Partizan also took much better care of the ball as it dished out 9 assists and committed just 1 turnover, while the home team had a mere 3 assists while committing 4 turnovers.
ASVEL was unable to take advantage of Partizan’s offensive woes in the second quarter as the visitors ramped up their defense and eventually held on to their advantage, although the French team at one point slashed the deficit to 31-35.
Lundberg was instrumental in keeping Partizan in the driving seat as he sank a pair of clutch threes late in the first half, enabling his team to take a 34-45 advantage into the locker room at the interval to delight a large and vociferous bad of traveling Serbian fans.
Any hopes of a comeback ASVEL might have had were vanquished in the third quarter as Partizan fired on all cylinders at both ends and won the period 9-29, with Davies catching fire to sink all his 11 points down the stretch. Defensively, Partizan’s EuroLeague debutant Arijan Lakic totally stifled ASVEL’s top performer Theo Maledon, who was confined to just 7 points on 0-of-6 shooting from the floor.
Partizan romped away to 45-80 early in the fourth and kept its foot on the gas all the way, with Tyrique Jones putting the icing on the cake with some spectacular dunks while many of the home supporters left the gym in a hurry well before the final buzzer.