Barely six years after its creation, Paris Basketball is in the last four of a European Cup: the Eurocup.
We are talking about the second competition on the old continent behind the Euroleague.
Winner of the Spaniards of Badalone (86-70) in a dry match, the young and ambitious club from the capital joins the other French club qualified the day before: JL Bourg with its phenomenon Zaccharie Risacher promised to the Top 5 of the next NBA draft .
Paris Basketball, still in the race to tickle Monaco and Asvel in the race for the title of French champion, is growing at stratospheric speed.
And it's certainly not over.
⚫️⚫️⚪️⚫️ 7'45@TjShorts5 YOU GREAT!
@mikaeljantunen SWEET HANDS!@ParisBasketball 54@Penya1930 45 pic.twitter.com/f9DlSXUk18
— Paris Basketball (@ParisBasketball) March 14, 2024
On paper, in addition to the home advantage in the Adidas Arena, his new setting, he was the favorite for this quarter-final.
In recent months, in the group stage, Tuomas Iisalo's team had beaten Badalone twice.
In Spain to start (101-94) in the room where the Dream Team played in 1992, a match marred at the time by racist insults from the local public.
Rebelote at the end of January at the Halle Carpentier (89-82).
The first two rounds were not easy.
Logic: Joventut Badalona, this town in the suburbs of Barcelona, is a major European basketball club, winner of the Euroleague exactly thirty years ago and of this same Eurocup in 2006.
And now London
Eighteen years later, will Paris succeed it?
And why not.
The winner of the Leaders Cup less than a month ago is in any case in the semi-final of the second of the European Cups behind the Euroleague.
It's not nothing.
As expected, the evening in front of a half-full hall with some 3,800 spectators was not a walk in the park.
At the end of the first quarter, TJ Short's partners took a small advantage (24-17).
They even stayed in front until the break (32-28, 17th) without being able to break away with the score (40-35, 20th).
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The gap began to widen in the third quarter.
The Spaniards' skill waned a little against a tight Parisian defense.
Before money time and the final ten minutes, Paris had a 14-point lead (62-48, 30th).
And this was accentuated in the fourth quarter of a game finished in an immense hubbub of joy.
Paris Basketball therefore continues its adventure in the Eurocup, a competition in which, since September, it has lost only one match out of the nineteen played since September.
In the semi-final, at the end of March and the beginning of April in the best of three matches, he will challenge another capital, London and its Lions.
There too, he will leave with an advantage.
The two clubs have already challenged each other in the group stage, and Paris Basketball won both rounds: 106-102 on the banks of the Thames and 94-77 on those of the Seine.
The first match will be played at the Adidas Arena on March 26.
The return will take place in England, and the possible ball in Paris.
The final will offer its winner a ticket to the Euroleague next season.