ASVEL Villeurbanne sweeps EuroLeague season series vs Maccabi Tel-Aviv

ASVEL Villeurbanne rallied past Maccabi Tel-Aviv on the road (67-74) and swept the regular season series with the Israelis in the EuroLeague.

The French outscored the Israelis 26-43 between the second and third quarter and cruised to an easy victory, as Maccabi never recovered after that.

“Defense has been our strength, When we play defense like that, we really did a good job, And offensively, we made good choices, a couple of guys made some good plays down the stretch.

When the game is on the line, [Cole] is our go-to guy. Four fouls or not, I trust him. He’s not going to make a foul, he stays on the court,” ASVEL head coach TJ Parker told reporters afterwards, via the official website of the EuroLeague.

“We had a good team effort. We executed well. I felt great; it feels great to be back here in front of the Gate, in front of the crowd. It was good to get a win.

We had a lot of energy. I had a lot of energy. I was excited to be back [in Tel Aviv],” Norris Cole said about his return to Tel-Aviv as an opponent. Cole, a two-time NBA champion with the Miami Heat, had 17 points and four assists for the winners.

Thanks to this win, ASVEL snapped a six-game losing streak in the EuroLeague and improved to 13-20. They also became the first French club to defeat Maccabi in Tel Aviv since 1996.

On the other hand, Maccabi Tel-Aviv dropped to 13-19 in the EuroLeague standings. Both teams have already been eliminated from the EuroLeague playoffs.

Maccabi will have little time to recover as it hosts Khimki Moscow Region in a makeup game from EuroLeague Round 24 on Tuesday, April 6. ASVEL will finish its season in Moscow on Thursday, April 8, when it faces CSKA.