MONACO (Basketball Champions League) - AS Monaco kept their remarkable run going, making it eleven straight with a 87-55 win over Dinamo Sassari on Tuesday evening.

Monaco reeled off an 18-0 run to finish the half and the result was a mere formality after that, as the home side registered 29 assists on the night led by 10 from DJ Cooper.

"This is one of the maybe the most important factor in our game," Head Coach Zvezdan Mitrovic commented on the team's assists.

"These assists they show the team game. Tonight we played without captain Amara Sy and Gerald Robinson, very important players for our team; our captain and leading scorer, and the guys showed a very good team game. 

"Defensively first of all, all these assists, rebounds they make, a lot of fast breaks, I thought we played very good, very beautiful. A lot of fast breaks, alley oop slams. I think people who came tonight really enjoyed our game."

Christopher Evans went for a highlight-filled 23 points on 9-for-10 shooting, Elmedin Kikanovic had 14 of his 18 in the first half, and Sergii Gladyr added 11.

Darko Planinic had 11 points to lead Dinamo Sassari, whose hopes of reaching the last 16 were dealt a big blow with the loss, as they dropped to 4-7 in fifth place in Group A.

Sassari Head Coach Federico Pasquini commented:

"After what has happened in the last week (not qualifying into the Cup), we lost our confidence and Monaco were the worst opponent we could have found because they are a fantastic side.

"We played our game for 15 minutes and then when they started playing more aggressive on defence we lost the feeling of the game."

A chippy first quarter saw both teams get off to a slow start, with AS Monaco holding an 18-17 lead after the opening period behind 8 points on 4/4 shooting from Christopher Evans, whilst Jonathan Tavernari did all he could to match him with 6 points on 2/2 shooting.

Multiple lead changes followed to open the second period, before a 6-0 run from the home side punctuated by a Georgi Joseph power lay up inside opened up a 31-25 lead with three minutes left in the half, forcing a Sassari timeout. 

Albert II, Prince of Monaco & Alain Béral, President of LNB, appreciated the show

It didn't stop the bleeding, the 6-0 run soon became an 18-0 run to finish the quarter, giving Monaco a 42-25 halftime lead. Kikanovic had 14 points at the break, 10 of which came in the final five minutes of the period during Monaco's dominant rally.

Christopher Evans opened up the third quarter with three consecutive alley-oop plays extending Monaco's lead to over 20 as they had enough of a cushion to cruise the rest of the way. By the fourth period the lead had ballooned to 35, with the result all but secured.