Led by twenty points in the 23rd minute (51-31), Villeurbanne managed an incredible comeback to win at the expense of Olympiakos Le Piraeus (77-75), one of the tenors of the Euroleague, Thursday in his Astroballe hall in the match of the 14th day. At halftime, the score was still 47-31 in favor of the Greek club.
Olympiakos, 2nd in the standings at kick-off and winner of Turkish leader Fenerbahçe (94-67) in the previous match on Tuesday, largely dominated the match for a long time, asserting their claims to win the continental title at the end of the season.
Spectacular comeback
But Asvel, which sails in the second half of the classification, offered a spectacular comeback and chained a fourth consecutive victory in all competitions, the third in the Euroleague after its successes in Barcelona, already a feat, then against Partizan Belgrade .
Asvel will try to confirm its sporting recovery on Sunday in Strasbourg, in the French Elite championship.
But the road was long Thursday evening on the floor of the Astroballe where the Greek club, under the impetus of Sasha Vezenkov, immediately showed great efficiency both at two points and on outside shots to take a wide lead, increased to twenty points (42-22 in the 14th then 51-31 in the 23rd).
4,000 points for De Colo
Asvel, under the impetus of Jonah Mathews (14 pts), Charles Kahudi (14 pts) or Amine Noua, reacted well in the third quarter which they won 19-14 to reduce the gap to – 11 (61-50). And the Villeurbannais continued to catch up to come back to within a length of Olympiakos thanks to a phenomenal 27-7 in five minutes (60-61, 33rd).
At the end of the match, Nando De Colo (13 pts) became, in the 37th minute, by bringing the score to 70-66, the fourth player in Euroleague history to reach 4,000 points in this competition. Above all, he made two decisive free throws to give his team the advantage (74-73).
And, while the Greeks were back in front (75-74), it was a three-point shot from Amine Noua in the very last moments of the match that gave Asvel the victory and reason to believe in it. again.