What the team most feared has come to pass. With their recent loss to Alba Berlin (75-61) during the 5th day of Top 16 play, Monaco no longer quite controls their own destiny. With the recent result, the prospect of playing in the quarterfinals of the EuroCup is much further away, in spite of their great start to the competition.<\/p>\n
The Roca Team could not withstand the onslaught of their group’s best team.\u00a0 As so often when they have had a bad night, the Monegasque players appeared static, yet continued to shoot from behind the arc despite repeated failures (8\/24). Alba Berlin did not wait for things to get any better for their adversaries Aggressive on the attacking front (18 offensive rebounds) and effective on the defensive boards (17 defensive rebounds), the Germans surprised the Monegasques from the jump, who fell behind by 10 points by the end of the first quarter.<\/p>\n
Lacking pace, the Roca Team reacted however in the second quarter thanks to better defense, the statistical best in the European competition. But their improvement (eight minutes without allowing any points) would be short-lived. Back from the locker room, the Berliners, led by an excellent Rokas Giedraitis (19 points), regained control of the match without any apparent effort, maintaining a ten point lead until the final buzzer.<\/p>\n