French Pro A: Strasbourg joins Leaders

Round 4 of the French Pro A regular season is now in the books. The last game for the round was between Elan Bearnais Pau-Lacq-Orthez and Strasbourg IG. The visiting Strasbourg club won the game convincingly 79-90. They were carried to victory on the shoulders of Rodrigue Beaubois’ 37 points. This is Strasbourg’s third win and join six other teams with identical 3-1 records to share the league lead. Limoges, ASVEL, Chalon, Gravelines, Monaco, and Dijon keep them company atop of the standings. The tight leadership just exemplifies how competitive the French Pro A league is this season. However, the season is still young so expect this situation to get shaken up.

Pau-Lacq-Orthez is still in a good spot with their 2-2 slate and are in fact sitting comfortably in eighth place, two spots behind Strasbourg.

Pau-Lacq-Orthez dominated at close range and they made the most of their trips to the free-throw line, but Strasbourg moved the ball better and they succeeded in finding the open man quite often for the easy baskets. Strasbourg compiled 21 assists to their hosts’ 10.

Strasbourg opened the game with guns blazing and raced to an early lead. Offenses for both teams were ticking and the scores racked up in quick fashion. Strasbourg slid ahead with a five-point advantage, 24-29. Pau-Lacq-Orthez rallied and improved their position in the second frame and trailed just by two points as both clubs headed to the locker rooms for the halftime break, 45-47.

The second half of the game was all Strasbourg, all the way. They were able to pull ahead in the third period and were not in any serious trouble after that.

At the end of the day, Pau-Lacq-Orthez was just unable to contain Rodrigue Beaubois who had his way, scoring 9-of-10 from two-point range and 6-of-9 from downtown. Kyle Weems played well as his foil with 14 points of his own. Lance Harris did his best to lift Pau-Lacq-Orthez with his 30 points. Steven Smith added 19 and Michael Thompson chipped in 11.