U18 ASVEL Villeurbanne bounced back from its disappointing defeat to miss a chance for the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Finals title by fending off U18 Stellazzurra Rome 85-73 to finish Group B action with a 2-1 record. ASVEL put together a 12-0 fourth quarter run to grab the win a day after losing to U18 Next Generation Select Team to end its hopes of winning its first U18 continental crown. Zaccharie Risacher was ASVEL’s leading scorer with 14 points, Killian Malwaya had 13 points and both Kymany Houinsou and Romain Parmentelot chipped in 10 points for the French side. Emmanuel Innocenti led all scorers with 22 points for Stellazzurra while Fabrizio Pugliatti had 19 points and Matteo Visintin scored 16 points in the loss. Stellazzurra ended the tournament with a 1-2 record.
ASVEL bounces back to finish with win over Stellazzurra
After Visintin scored the first points of the game, Stellazzurra failed to score for 3 minutes and ASVEL hit eight straight points to lead 8-2. Visintin and Pugliatti knocked down triples at the other end as Stellazzurra cut the gap to 12-11, and a three-pointer and three-point play from Innocenti gave the Italian side the lead 18-19 after 10 minutes.
Risacher opened the second quarter with a triple and Parmentelot’s score made it 25-23. Innocenti led a Stellazzurra surge with eight points in a 3-16 run to lead 28-39. ASVEL was able to trim the gap to 34-40 at the break.
Innocenti continued his strong game with four points and pushed the cushion to 36-46. ASVEL temporarily trimmed it to a three points game only to have Pugliatti hit two triples and it was 49-55. ASVEL shut down Stellazzurra to close the third quarter with a 9-0 run to take a 60-56 lead after 30 minutes.
The surge went on and four Houinsou points made it 64-58. Stellazzurra responded with the next seven points to pull back ahead 64-65. Eric Dailey Jr.’s free throw had Stellazzurra within 69-68 with 4 minutes to play. The ASVEL defense cracked down one last time and held Stellazzurra scoreless for more than 3 minutes and Houinsou came up with seven points in a 12-0 run to decide the game at 81-68.