The French basketball players, three days after hitting rock bottom in Ukraine, rebounded against Lithuania, crushed 83-56 Sunday at the Palacium de Villeneuve d'Ascq.
"We have to win," warned new coach Jean-Aimé Toupane before the meeting.
With his defeat of 19 points in Kiev Thursday (90-71), his team had "burned a wild card" he recognized the day before, only the ten first nations and the four best second of the ten groups qualifying for the Eurobasket 2023 in Israel and Slovenia.
For their first match in France since Olympic bronze, Les Bleues revived their memories of the summer to the more than 2,000 spectators who came to see the medalists.
The latter were entitled to their face in Tokyo rather than that of Kiev, despite the still absences of the two leaders of the Japanese adventure Alix Duchet and Marine Fauthoux.
The French basketball players have regained their defense, the virtue of which the new coach wants to make the "DNA" of the team.
The band of Sandrine Gruda (34), appointed as the new captain since Thursday, left only 28 points to Lithuania at mid-game.
Less than what they had conceded against Ukraine in the first ten minutes alone (30 points).
First victory for Toupane
It must also be said that Lithuania - even s the prodigy of Asvel Juste Jocyte had been operational - does not have a player of the caliber of Alina Iagupova, the Ukrainian double MVP of the Euroleague (2020 and 2021) who had depressed les Bleues as soon as she could on Thursday.
Evidenced by his statistics sheet (33 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists).
France nevertheless has an extraordinary player with Marine Johannès (18 minutes, 13 points and 3 assists).
Dull like the whole team in Ukraine (12 points, 4 assists), she started on the bench after being the most used player on Thursday (33 minutes).
His entry after four minutes coincided with the French rise to power.
The back of Lyon-Asvel brought address with five points from his first two shots.
"MJ" also sprang to intercept a ball in the Lithuanian camp and finish with a lay up (19-15) or even regaled the public with a shoot well behind the line (40-28).
Relaunched by their success, the Blue rained a year before their next window of qualification for the Euro, scheduled for the end of November 2022 with the reception of Finland and Ukraine.
The next meeting for the players of Jean-Aimé Toupane (who won his first victory as coach of the Blue) awaits them in February with the qualifying tournament for the 2022 World Cup organized in September in Australia.
