Contested by Germany for three quarters, the French basketball team raised the tone in the home stretch to achieve a convincing success (86-74) Sunday in Pau and take a further step towards Euro 2022 The Blues, wide winners of Great Britain on Friday (79-56), recorded a third success in 4 days and will be almost qualified if Montenegro beats the British in the evening in Pau.
It will suffice for them to lose, in February, less than 23 points in the return match against the subjects of His Majesty.
In the meantime, Vincent Collet's team, deprived of its NBA and Euroleague stars, took revenge on the Mannschaft which eliminated it from the previous Euro in 2017 - 84-81 in the eighth - and beat it again in the first leg in February (83-69).
This was not obvious at the end of the second quarter, when the Germans glued together on a long shot from their captain Robin Benzing (40-39) before passing in front at the start of the third act, well helped by the clumsiness of the French at three points (2/11 in the first period).
While this balanced match had started at a big pace (25-22 in the first quarter), the baskets became rarer (4-4 after 3 minutes) and the game more choppy, with significantly more faults and therefore of free throws.
And in this game, the Germans had shown a better face (11/15) than the French (11/15).
Boutsiele revolts
The Mannschaft seemed to have gained the upper hand (56-59), but captain Andrew Albicy sounded the charge with a 3-point buzzer which gave the advantage back to the Blues (61-59) before a last one-sided quarter-time .
In particular thanks to Jerry Boutsiele.
Is it the fact of being passed through on Friday for his first selection (1/6 on shots)?
The interior of Limoges has in any case chained three baskets, two rebounds and a fault caused which allowed France to pass a 7-0 and to break away for the first time of the match (68-61).
The other face of this money-time winner is called Yakuba Ouattara: with 24 points and 3 rebounds, the Sevilla rear has definitely removed the German danger.
Without forgetting the involvement of Captain Albicy (15 evaluation) and the weight of Axel Bouteille under the basket (5 rebounds).
Defensively, the Blues managed to contain Benzing (only 4 shots taken) and to keep Andreas Obst far from the basket, without success at three points (2/8).
They must now finish the job in February before perhaps being rewarded with a personal ticket to the Euro, amid the stars of French basketball.
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