French Cup : Monaco and ASVEL face each other in the final

Monaco and Lyon-Villeurbanne won their top 8 of the French Cup in Trélazé and qualify for the final of the competition on April 22 at the Accor Arena.

AS Monaco qualified for the 2023 French Cup final by beating Le Mans in an incredibly long game due to fouls (78-87). From the first quarter, the tone had been set with a string of free throws in the first five minutes. In the wake of a dazzling Matt Morgan, Le Mans had a 13 point lead (28-15, 11th) but then had a real offensive breakdown for five minutes.

But the scenario turned to Monaco’s advantage. Le Mans accumulated fouls and lost Abdoulaye Ndoye, out with an injury. The Roca Team came back and took control of the moneytime. With an excellent Matthew Strazel, Monaco increased the gap and folded the case after two dunks of Yoan Makoundou (75-85, 38th).

Monaco joined by ASVEL

In the closing stages of the top 8, ASVEL booked its ticket to the final by defeating SIG Strasbourg (85-69). In a packed Arena Loire, the first half was in three parts. First, there was the duel between Dee Bost, 10 points after 5 minutes of play, and DeAndre Lansdowne at the beginning of the game (13-9, 4th).

Then, ASVEL had its moment of grace and was up to 17 points ahead at the end of the first quarter. Strasbourg continued to hang on but Lyon-Villeurbanne tightened its defense after the break. At the beginning of the last quarter, SIG tried to come back. But it left too much ammunition along the way, including free throws (23/33 on the line), not to mention the domination of Villeurbanne on the rebound (42 to 24).

“We have a team with a lot of experience. We want to win trophies, we started with the Leaders Cup, we must be strong against Monaco”

Reaction of Tony Parker, president of ASVEL after the semifinal to the microphone of MCS Sport.

Villeurbanne will try to lift its 11th French Cup against Monaco in a rematch of the last French championship final, a classic for a title, on April 22 at Bercy.

Photo : (Hervé Bellenger / FFBB)