Late Basket Keeps Paris Top Of Group E

Ryan Thompson led the way for Okapi Aalstar with 23 points

Giovan Oniangue's lay-up 14 seconds from time kept Paris Levallois top of Group E in the EuroChallenge despite a 90-81 loss to Okapi Aalstar in their final group game.

In a battle of two teams already assured of their place in the last 16 but scrapping over top spot in the group, Okapi needed to win by 11 points or more to dislodge their French hosts, and had a 90-79 lead after Larry Anderson's lay-up with 21 seconds left.

But Oniangue came through for the Parisians at the close with the all-important basket.

It was perhaps tough on Okapi who had led virtually the entire game but could never get a double-digit advantage to stick after the first quarter.

They had taken control with 15-0 run early in the contest, going 17-4 up on two free throws from Jason Clark.

Clark hit three more from the stripe early in the second as the lead grew to 30-16.

But Paris came to life with Oniangue and Sean May taking it in turns in a 9-0 spurt.

Paris would enjoy only a fleeting lead of their own, coming back to edge in front 51-49 on May's jump-shot early in the third, but even though they let Okapi go back in front, they made sure they could not get away.

Ryan Thompson and Ioana Tofi led Okapi with 23 points each, while Clark had 17 and Derek Raivio 14.

May poured in 30 for Paris with Jawad Williams adding 17 and Oniangue 13.

Quotes Paris Levallois vs. Okapi Aalstar

Paris Levallois player Sean May    

"We wanted to come out and play well, but it is really hard mentally, as players, when you are already qualified, when there is nothing behind it."

"The young players were the only bright spots of the game. They were really good. Louis [Labeyrie] is getting better and better, Giovan [Oniangue] is on a two game streak where he's really good and Alexandre [Jallier] did a really good job too."

"The individual awards I get, I really take them as collective awards. My performances I owe them to my teammates. It is easy to score a lot when you have Jawad, Antoine or Andrew passing you the ball."

Paris Levallois head coach Christophe Denis

"We had decided to come out and play to win the game. We didn't want to make any calculations for the group ranking. We had three games at home this round, and we had only won one before tonight, so even if we didn't win, we owed it to our public to play seriously and give them a good game."

"This game really was for the young players. It was the occasion for them to come out and show me things, to win minutes on the court not only for the European competition, but for the French championship as well."

Okapi Aalstar player Ryan Thompson

"Paris and us are moving on to the next round. They have a really good team, they will be tough competitors."

"We tried to keep Sean May away from the basket. We knew he was going to score anyway so we tried to at least stop him from getting easy shots in the paint."

Okapi Aalstar head coach Bradley Scott Dean

"We had a lot of ups and downs with the team this season, but the guys have shown that they can bounce back quickly which is good, especially because it is a bit unusual for young players. We had a really bad game last weekend, tonight we played well, hopefully we can keep the momentum for the upcoming game this weekend."

Quotes Paris Levallois vs. Okapi Aalstar

Paris Levallois player Sean May    

"We wanted to come out and play well, but it is really hard mentally, as players, when you are already qualified, when there is nothing behind it."

"The young players were the only bright spots of the game. They were really good. Louis [Labeyrie] is getting better and better, Giovan [Oniangue] is on a two game streak where he's really good and Alexandre [Jallier] did a really good job too."

"The individual awards I get, I really take them as collective awards. My performances I owe them to my teammates. It is easy to score a lot when you have Jawad, Antoine or Andrew passing you the ball."

Paris Levallois head coach Christophe Denis

"We had decided to come out and play to win the game. We didn't want to make any calculations for the group ranking. We had three games at home this round, and we had only won one before tonight, so even if we didn't win, we owed it to our public to play seriously and give them a good game."

"This game really was for the young players. It was the occasion for them to come out and show me things, to win minutes on the court not only for the European competition, but for the French championship as well."

Okapi Aalstar player Ryan Thompson

"Paris and us are moving on to the next round. They have a really good team, they will be tough competitors."

"We tried to keep Sean May away from the basket. We knew he was going to score anyway so we tried to at least stop him from getting easy shots in the paint."

Okapi Aalstar head coach Bradley Scott Dean

"We had a lot of ups and downs with the team this season, but the guys have shown that they can bounce back quickly which is good, especially because it is a bit unusual for young players. We had a really bad game last weekend, tonight we played well, hopefully we can keep the momentum for the upcoming game this weekend."