Abused for three and a half quarters, Elie Okobo’s teammates offered themselves a historic championship title on Thursday.
Monaco finally holds it. After three consecutive failures in the championship final, AS Monaco gleaned its first French champion trophy in the final of the Betclic Elite against the Mets de Boulogne-Levallois (85-92), Thursday, June 15. In a Philippe-Chatrier court at Roland-Garros transformed for the occasion, the Monegasques came back from hell, after having chased the score for a long time.
Dominated for long minutes, they only went ahead in the score for the first time 3’31” from the end of the match on a basket from Elie Okobo accompanied by a foul from Victor Wembanyama. In the final minute, with the two teams tied at 85-85, two three-point shots from Jordan Loyd sent Roca Team past to win the gong.
Victor Wembanyama leaves France in defeat
Author of a huge match (22 points, 7 rebounds, 4 blocks, 30 evaluation), the young prodigy therefore leaves the French championship with a heavy defeat (3-0 in aggregate) in the final. Named best player, best defender and best young player of Betclic Elite this season, the native of Chesnay will now fly to the United States, for the NBA Draft, where he could write the history of French basketball by being chosen first. position.
Omnipresent and able to play around him, he was also supported by a TaShawn Thomas of the big nights (20 points, 5 assists) and a hard-hitting DeVante Jones (16 points, 5 assists). On track to be selected in the Draft too, Bilal Coulibaly has, in sequence, shown why the NBA world is interested in him. Paradoxically, Monaco certainly owes its comeback to having been very present in the offensive rebound, especially in the first period (12 in total). Above all, it was the Monegasques’ defense that made the difference at the end of the match, limiting the Mets to 15 points in the last quarter.
Jarod Blossomgame as X factor, Jordan Loyd as boss
But if Monaco was able to win despite a match passed behind on the scoreboard (until minus 16 in the first quarter), it owes it in large part to Jarod Blossomgame (22 points) and Jordan Loyd (22 points at 5/7 to three points). The first came out of his box to allow his people to pick up the score while the second completed his big game with two arch-decisive three-point shots in the last minute, to definitively extinguish the hopes of the Ile-de-France residents. Relentless throughout these finals, Jordan Loyd was even voted MVP (best player) of the finals.
For Monaco, it is the epilogue of a season which will have allowed the club of the principality to change dimension. Third in the Euroleague after reaching the Final Four for the first time in its history, the Roca Team won its first national title and even achieved the double with the Coupe de France. With a budget increased tenfold this year and intelligent recruitment, Monaco justifies the means put in place and continues to progress.