The French basketball players, without their NBA stars or their Euroleague talents, defeated Montenegro 73-67 on Friday in Pau in their first qualifying match for the 2023 World Cup. Almost four months after the Olympic final and the Tokyo silver, the Blues, deprived of their medalists with the exception of the convalescent Andrew Albicy, overthrew the Montenegrins who led by seven points on the edge of the last quarter.
In qualifying for the Eurobasket, the Blues had “had to whip” in February in Podgorica recalled Isaïa Cordinier the day before. In their pool in Pau also on Friday, with a plucked team. With the exception of Paul Lacombe, released by Villeurbanne, all the other Euroleague players were selected to play the matches scheduled simultaneously in this window. A duplicate consequence of the latent conflict between the private league and the International Basketball Federation (Fiba).
As if that were not enough, Andrew Albicy, uncertain but hoped the day before by Vincent Collet for his “leadership and his experience”, did not last two minutes on the floor before giving way. And the back of Limoges Nicolas Lang, first “offensive weapon”, quoted the day before by the coach who praised his “shooting skills”, injured his left ankle in the wake.
But Lang made his comeback at the end of the third quarter and embodied the comeback of the Blues by stacking 11 points including three shots behind the three-point line in the last quarter. Vincent Collet’s men go for the second day on Monday in Hungary, which beat the group’s fourth team Portugal 81-75.
