The Palais des Sports d’Orléans experienced a historic late afternoon this Sunday, during the 24th day late of Betclic Elite. Led by 30 points at the break against Bourg-en-Bresse, the OLB completely overturned their opponent in an exceptional second half. The Loiretans finally imposed themselves at the buzzer 84-82 thanks to Emmanuel Terryafter viewing the video by the arbitration trio. A success in an exceptional atmosphere hailed by the Orleans coach Germain Castano at the post-match press conference, happy and relieved.
“It’s just amazing. I’ve been doing this job for 19 years. this is the first time that it happens to me. I returned. I had the chance in my career on certain matches, to come back to crazy things, even with Orléans, but I never experienced that. When the referees go to watch the video, you already see yourself in Boulogne Levallois, and you say no, it’s going to fall on the right side. I had good feelings because I saw Emanuel Terry hit the ball long before it sounded. And it does crazy good. Afterwards, in the locker room, I also told my players that I wanted to insult them. I’m not going to do it because I’m only going to remember the second half. But the first is outrageous, in intent, because we’re supposed to be on a mission. But that was the big mop! And then in the second half, well, we change our defense a bit, we make them stagger a bit, we do things and it works for us. And then afterwards, the room gets together with us and an extraordinary scenario happens. At last ! Because we had a lot of bad luck this year. Finally, we have a scenario that drives us crazy, that we went looking for, that the players went looking for. We did something that was successful, of course, but the real credit went to the players and it was a great gift they gave.“
A victory ahead of the relegation zone
The OLB has a second consecutive success in Betclic Elite after his victory against Roanne and now has a victory ahead of Fos-sur-Mer, beaten in Monaco this Sunday (93-66). The Orleans also return to Portel, before playing their last game late on Wednesday facing Strasbourg (20 hours). According to Germain Castano, Orleans Loiret Basketball still needs to win two games by the end of the season to ensure its maintenance.