Monaco missed the opportunity to take control of the Euroleague basketball alone by losing heavily in the hall of Partizan Belgrade (100-80) Thursday during the 17th day.
The “Roca Team” (11 wins for six losses) did not take advantage of the setbacks of the two teams with which it shared the lead, Vitoria (beaten in Berlin 85 to 84), and especially FC Barcelona, surprised at home against Bologna (83-75). Without one of its leaders, Jordan Loyd (shoulder), nor its captain Adrien Moerman, starved for playing time in recent weeks and left in the Principality by coach Sasa Obradovic, it lost its footing in the last quarter against at the long distance address of the Serbian club (15/25, 60% success), back in the race for the play-offs (eight wins / nine losses now).
Partizan of French pivot Mathias Lessort (21 pts, 8 rebounds) reached the 100-point mark for the first time this season, well helped by Monegasques who completely gave up at the end of the match. In a white-hot StarkArena, the Serbs had first inflicted a 10-0 to take an eleven-point lead from the start of the fourth quarter (79-68).
Imitating the former Monegasque Danilo Andjusic (12 pts at 4/4 at 3 pts), Ioannis Papapetrou then scored 2 min 45 sec from the end the winning shot (90-75) which definitively put an end to hopes of victory of the ASM. She will have to bounce back on Tuesday at home against Olympiacos, her executioner in the quarter-finals last season.