French Pro A: Monaco keeps on rolling

AS Monaco Basket maintains its dominant position in the French Pro A league. They are now 25-3 and are taking down some of their stiffest competition along the way. The most recent casualty in Monaco’s string of wins is Elan Bearnais Pau-Lacq-Orthez. The league leader crushed them 73-85. The loss drops Pau-Lacq-Orthez to 19-9 and out of the Top 4. There’s now a three-way race from positions three to five, as JSF Nanterre and Strasbourg IG also sport 19-9 records of their own. Comfortably sitting solo in second place is ES Chalon-Sur-Saone, which is four games behind Monaco with their 21-7 slate.

They recovered after a slow start and managed to finish strong, with a flurry in the second half. It was an interesting match-up between two contrasting styles. Monaco was destroyed at the battle on the glass, 40-29, but they made up for that deficiency with some tight defense on transition. Monaco collected an impressive 16 steals in the game, compared to just nine by Pau-Lacq-Orthez.

Pau-Lacq-Orthez managed to get big games out of D.J. Cooper and Alain Koffi, who dropped 24 and 22 points, respectively. Cooper ended with a double-double, adding 17 dimes and four steals to his stat line for the night. Unfortunately, their combined heroics were not enough to lift their team to the upset win.

Dee Bost led four other Monaco players in double-digit scoring with 20 points. He had a well-rounded game with seven boards, five assists, two treys, and three steals.