Ndoye Sparks Paris In Comeback

Andrew Albicy and Paris Levallios came back from 19 points in arrears to win their opening EuroChallenge encounter of the new season

Maleye Ndoye scored 19 of his 21 points in the second half to lead Paris Levallois to a fantastic comeback, reversing a 19-point third quarter deficit for a 91-75 victory at BCMU Pitesti in Group E of the EuroChallenge.

Four other Paris players scored in double figures including Jawad Williams with 13 points and Andrew Albicy, who had 12 points and eight assists. Marcel Jones paced the Romanian home side with 21 points and seven rebounds while Damien Kinloch added 16 points and eight rebounds in the losing effort.

Pitesti used an 11-2 run for an 18-8 first quarter lead. Alexandru Negut and Drasko Albijanic both nailed triples to push the cushion to 28-15 after 10 minutes.

Sean May scored the first seven points of the second quarter for Levallois and a John Cox triple trimmed it to 30-25. But Jones and Kinloch combined for all 11 points in an 11-0 run and Pitesti went into the locker room ahead 49-31.

The lead increased to 52-33 on Negut's triple early in the third quarter. But Ndoye made five straight shots including four three-pointers to start an 11-0 Paris run and the French side was within 61-58 after three quarters.

Williams tallied six points in a 15-0 Paris rampage to start the fourth for a 73-61 lead and triples by Williams and Ndoye made it 79-63 and the hosts would not get closer than 10 points the rest of the way.

Quotes BCMU Pitesti vs. PARIS Levallois

Paris Levallois head coach Christophe Denis
"I am really happy to win this game after all, in front of a strong team like Pitesti, and they proved this mostly in the first two quarters.  We came back in the second part, we played more like a team, we shared the ball and we lifted the intensity of the game. We played good defence, that gave us the chance to run the floor and score easy baskets on fast-break. I congratulate the home team, they are a really strong team and that is the reason I am even more happy that we won tonight."

Paris Levallois player Maleye Ndoye
"The atmosphere was great, the gym was great, I like to play in this kind of gym. They surprised us in the first part, but we were able to come back. We played a different game in the second part, and step by step, point by point, we fought and finally we won the game. But for sure, it was not at all an easy win."

Pitesti head coach Tudor Costescu
"We started the game very well, confident, they were surprised by our game. But after that,  we had a mental block in the 3rd quarter, many individual mistakes, easy mistakes, some that I never ever experienced before. We went down physically in the second half, practically we lost by 30 points in 20 minutes. Paris Levallois had excellent percentages in the seond part, but we also let them have such good figures with our very poor defence. They are a very good team, but also our little experience in these kind of games gave them the chance."

Pitesti player Popa Calota
"Paris Levallois have really good and experienced players. After half time they looked completely different. They had their chances, we had ours also, but we didn’t know how to take advantage of these chances."

Quotes BCMU Pitesti vs. PARIS Levallois

Paris Levallois head coach Christophe Denis
"I am really happy to win this game after all, in front of a strong team like Pitesti, and they proved this mostly in the first two quarters.  We came back in the second part, we played more like a team, we shared the ball and we lifted the intensity of the game. We played good defence, that gave us the chance to run the floor and score easy baskets on fast-break. I congratulate the home team, they are a really strong team and that is the reason I am even more happy that we won tonight."

Paris Levallois player Maleye Ndoye
"The atmosphere was great, the gym was great, I like to play in this kind of gym. They surprised us in the first part, but we were able to come back. We played a different game in the second part, and step by step, point by point, we fought and finally we won the game. But for sure, it was not at all an easy win."

Pitesti head coach Tudor Costescu
"We started the game very well, confident, they were surprised by our game. But after that,  we had a mental block in the 3rd quarter, many individual mistakes, easy mistakes, some that I never ever experienced before. We went down physically in the second half, practically we lost by 30 points in 20 minutes. Paris Levallois had excellent percentages in the seond part, but we also let them have such good figures with our very poor defence. They are a very good team, but also our little experience in these kind of games gave them the chance."

Pitesti player Popa Calota
"Paris Levallois have really good and experienced players. After half time they looked completely different. They had their chances, we had ours also, but we didn’t know how to take advantage of these chances."