Roca Team lived up to its status as French basketball champion on Sunday night with a strong performance. Coach Sasa Obradovic’s team defeated archrival ASVEL from Villeurbanne 87-79 in an away game at packed Astroballe. Thanks to this achievement, Monaco, as in football, is the leader in the French league. The defending champions made the difference in the closing stages of the game as the home team hoped to strike, scoring 9-2 in the final two minutes.
Mike James was the top scorer for the Monegasques, just like last Wednesday against Clermont, in the first home game of this season. He scored 21 points, but during the game Elie Okobo was on form. The latter is distinguished with 19 often crucial points. Roca Team got off to an excellent start in the hostile environment and led 52-37 after the first half. After that, ASVEL largely erased that deficit, but at the buzzer of the third quarter, Monaco still had a ten-point lead. The real difference was made in the last five minutes.
Monaco have won the first four games in the French league. In the past season, the team became champion of France for the first time after also winning the Coupe de France. The team will start the EuroLeague in two weeks, in which it finished in third place last season.
