Already qualified for the quarter-finals before the match, Les Bleues ended the group stage with a third victory in three games, against Slovenia on Sunday.
Three games, three victories: the French women’s basketball team finished its first round of Eurobasket undefeated. Already qualified in the quarter-finals even before entering the Arena Stozice floor in Ljubljana, they won against Slovenia (73-68) on Sunday 18 June. Disputed against an opponent already eliminated, the meeting had no other stake than to allow the players of Jean-Aimé Toupaine to increase in power, but the shortcomings of the previous matches have not disappeared.
In front of their (meagre) public, the Slovenes wanted to finish on a good note, they who had never left a European championship without the slightest victory before this one. They almost succeeded in their coup, installing doubt in the heads of the tricolor by leading the score for almost the entire second and third quarter. But five consecutive points from Sarah Michel (14 points) and a basket from Alexia Chartereau (6 points) restored the advantage to the French at the start of the last act (54-51). A lead in the score increased to ten units (68-58) in the fourth time and well managed despite a last close 40 seconds from the end (70-66).
Lack of three-point skill
Apart from a very promising start to the match thanks to a judicious offensive aggressiveness (9-2, 4′), the French team was not really reassured after two already narrow successes against Germany (58-50) and Great Britain (63-57). His first lead in the score was also quickly squandered to cede control of the match to his opponent (9-10, 6 ‘), Sunday.
“We want to show that we are progressing”, warned before the meeting coach Jean-Aimé Toupane, on BeIN Sports. His players did not really prove him right. Offensively, they have sorely lacked external address (6/22 from three-pointers). An area that is nevertheless crucial for failing to defend the zone sometimes offered by Slovenia, like the Germans and the British during the first two meetings. Fortunately, Sandrine Gruda and Janelle Salaun (10 points each) were able to find solutions inside or in the intermediate game.
“The defense was not there”
More worryingly, the France team was not convincing in defense either. A first in this European championship. “We are not in our defensive standards, it puts us in difficulty”, admitted Sarah Michel, at halftime. Very often late on the opposing movements, passive on the external positions, they allowed the Slovenes to shoot in a three-point chair (9/24). “The defense was not there, we clarified things at the break and we got back to itconceded Jean-Aimé Toupane. What matters is the reaction we got.”
But bad news came to blacken the picture of the evening: the injury of Iliana Rupert. Touched in the shoulder in the second quarter (16 ‘), the 21-year-old interior left her partners, heading to the hospital to undergo examinations. Once the diagnosis has been made, France will be able to plan for its quarter-final, scheduled for Thursday. It will challenge the winner of a dam which will oppose Italy to an adversary yet to be determined. The relief will then rise drastically with probable opposition against Belgium or Serbia, reigning European champions, in the semi-finals.