France qualified for 2023 World Cup after victory over Bosnia

She will be traveling. The French basketball team validated its ticket for the 2023 World Cup after its big victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina (92-56), during the last qualifying day, Monday evening in Pau.

Three days after his convincing success in Lithuania (90-65) for the great blue debut of the phenomenon Victor Wembanyama, Vincent Collet’s men needed a victory to validate their ticket for Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan, where the competition will take place from August 25 to September 10, 2023.

Faced with an opponent who had surprised them at the end of August during the first leg (96-90) just before the Eurobasket, they never trembled. The Blues won all quarters, with a division of time and mark between all the players of this autumn gathering, favored it is true by the absence on the Bosnian side of Jusuf Nurkic (Portland, NBA) and Dzanan Musa ( Real Madrid, Euroleague).

“Honestly, I am satisfied, in addition to this two out of two (Lithuania and Bosnia), with the way, even if this evening we were a little less fluid, a little more in difficulty to have rhythm, acknowledged coach Vincent Collet. They played a lot in the zone, which slowed us down in transmissions. »

“Even when Victor is average, he’s pretty good”

For his second outing in blue, the first on French soil, the prodigy Victor Wembanyama once again distinguished himself by scoring the first 7 tricolor points in the space of 54 seconds (7-2, 4) without materializing the attempts following.

Read also: Who is Victor Wembanyama, young prodigy of French basketball

His time on the bench visibly reinvigorated him, with a more refined basketball on his return and the same offensive dynamic (7 points almost in a row) to win Bosnians who let go just before the break (40-27).

In the art of deterrence, where he is also expected, “Wemby” and his sprawling arms (3 blocks, 2 interceptions) repeatedly thwarted Bosnians forced to force a few situations. The probable number 1 in the NBA draft finished the game with 19 points (18 evaluation), one unit less than Friday at Panevezys for his Lithuanian baptism.

“Victor played an average game very clearly but as he is an exceptional player, even when he is average, he is still rather good, summarized Collet. After a good start, it got a bit on fire with a bit of waste. It remained a little too much on the periphery and not enough below. That’s when it gets closer [du cercle] that it has an almost systematic domination. »

“We discovered players”

In his wake, Yoan Makoundou was also the author of a solid performance during the first act (9 points), as was interior Damien Inglis during the 3e quarter (9 points) or outside Juhann Begarin who maximized his presence (17 points in 19 minutes).

As for the palm for the basket of the evening, it was shared between this electric dunk of the small leader Sylvain Francisco, best French scorer Friday in Lithuania and author of 8 points in Pau, and this basket with 3 points suspended from Axel Toupane , which made the Palais des Sports roar.

After the break, the Balkan players, carried by Kenan Kamenjas (18 points), tried to hang on before finally exploding in the last quarter (33-12) against the euphoric Blues.

“Many players have put their noses out the window, acknowledged Collet. Some scored points, we really discovered players we didn’t expect at this level..

The World with AFP

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