Another win in the Euroleague for Barça after a hard fought 85-81 victory over Monaco in a game that went to the wire in overtime. Saras Jasikevicius' team had to come from behind to take the win with Brandon Davies scoring an impressive 27 points.
Inconsistent start
After conceding five unanswered points, Barça replied at the start of the game with Mirotic leading the way to peg Monaco back to 13-12 after five minutes. Nevertheless, the French side again got away from Saras' team to lead 22-12 at the end of the first quarter. A fight back of sorts saw the blaugranes cut the lead to 35-31 at half time.
Barça fightback
More precision on offense and defense saw the blaugranes claw themselves back into the game in the third quarter. On the half hour mark Barça led 54-52 and with five minutes to go a six point lead at 64-58 saw Saras' team look favourites for the win.
However, Monaco were not beaten and even led 68-66 with two minutes to go before the game eventually went into overtime. Fortunately, the blaugranes held their nerve as the team exchanged baskets with Saras' team closing out an important 85-81 win.
MATCH STATS:
Monaco, 81
Barça, 85
Monaco: Lee (5), Boutsiele (4), Motiejunas (6), Ouattara (7) and Gray (4) -starting five-, Westermann (10), Thomas (15), Diallo (4), Faye (2), Andjusic (-), Hall (8) and James (16).
Barça: Jokubaitis (2), Kuric (2), Higgins (6), Mirotic (14) and Davies (27) -starting five-, Smits (3), Hayes-Davis (5), Oriola (2), Laprovittola (12) and Calathes (12).
