It’s written, nothing will be easy for the France team in this Eurobasket. The Blues won on Tuesday, September 6 in Cologne (Germany), in pain and at the end of the suspense against Bosnia and Herzegovina (81-68), on the fourth day of the group stage of the European Championship.
Surprised by Slovenia on Sunday (97-93), and even by this French team in qualifying for the 2023 World Cup (96-90), on August 27, Bosnia-Herzeovina had all the trap announced. But 40 minutes later, France succeeded in foiling the plans of the Bosnians. From a furious solo dunk 1’30” from the buzzer, Terry Tarpey (7 points, 5 rebounds and 4 steals) confirmed the tricolor success (74-65, 39th). The final gap allowed France to take advantage of the final seconds to savor this third consecutive victory.
The Blues first dug a first big gap at the break (44-34, 20th) in the footsteps of Guerschon Yabusele (15 points and 5 rebounds), confirmed after returning from the locker room (52-40, 26th).
But as against Hungary (78-74), Sunday, France relaxed due, in particular, to an Evan Fournier out of address (14 points at 2/9 at three-pointers), who all the same passed the bar of 1,000 points under the blue jersey. Bosnia and Herzegovina then went back in front, on an award-winning basket from John Roberson (53-52, 31st), author of 13 points.
“When we were in trouble in the third quarter, we didn’t give up, unlike some games like Germany”noted Thomas Heurtel at the microphone of Canal + Sport 360. The leader is just out of his box (14 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists) to participate in this precious and reassuring success for the Habs. “It’s a victory that feels good, it was quite complicated, we let them get back into the game but we had to stay focused”confirmed Guerschon Yabusele.
Evan Fournier with 14 points passes the bar of 1000 points in the French team @EuroBasket @FRABasketball @CanalplusSport pic.twitter.com/Le3298enaq
– CANAL + Basket (@CanalplusBasket) September 6, 2022
Already qualified in the round of 16, the French have the opportunity to rank well in group B in the event of a final victory against Slovenia on Wednesday (5:15 p.m.). A good ranking would allow Vincent Collet’s players to face a theoretically more affordable opponent. “No, Slovenia is not a final. It’s an important group match, reacted Evan Fournier after the meeting. If we win, we will finish second, it will be the best place for us if Germany (which faces the Slovenians) don’t lose tonight. We’re going to have to fight.”