At the end of a high-level match, Monaco won the first round of the Eurocup final against Kazan (89-87) Tuesday night in the Gaston-Médecin room and can dream of a final victory on Friday in Russia.
The defensive intensity at the end of the match allowed Monaco to snatch Match 1 of this Eurocup final, whose revenge will take place in Kazan on Friday in a room with the public.
The leaders of the French championship will travel to Russia with the ambition of winning a competition that no club in France has yet managed to win.
It was in front of Prince Albert that Monaco started its final perfectly.
After a dunk from Mathias Lessort, the Monegasques did what their coach Zvevdan Mitrovic appreciates the most: defend.
The dominant spell on the defensive rebound, a coherent collective aggressiveness and a three-point address (three consecutive baskets) allowed the Roca Team to stand out (11-2, 6th).
But this good start was not enough to shut down the Russian machine.
After the first timeout, Kazan got back into working order.
Klimenko, who had averaged just 2.3 points per game since the start of the competition, quickly scored six points.
Under the impetus of Canaan, the Russians came back to a point (15-14, 8th).
The mano a mano was about to start.
With Lessort and Gray (10 and 9 points at the break) as strong men on the Monegasque side.
With the astonishing Klimenko and the excellent Théodore (respectively 12 and 9 points at the break), on the Russian side.
It took an error and a fault by Abdoulaye Ndoye on John Brown after having, however, recovered the ball (basket and free throw, fault and Russian possession) for Kazan to pass in front (23-22, 13th).
Big defense
Gradually, Kazan showed the muscles. His bench did the rest. Despite the fact that his star Jamar Smith played only two minutes in the first period, Kazan was ahead at the break (44-42). On the return, John Holland scored three points and Smith finally played to widen the gap (59-51, 25th). But this season, Monaco is never giving up. With defensive principles found, the Roca Boys gradually returned to equalize by Gray (59-59, 29th), pass in stride and finish the third quarter in the lead (65-64).
The last quarter was a struggle.
The two formations are in turn passed in front.
The Monegasques, uncompromising in defense and systematically looking for offensive risk (3 points from O'Brien to lead 79-78, 3 more from Gray to equalize 84-84) took up the challenge.
However, Klimenko (22 points in the end) achieved the game of his life.
But 27.6 seconds from the end, Marcos Knight (14 points) allowed the Red and Whites to definitively pass in front.
And Ndoye's interception 6 seconds from time did the rest.
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