Same scenario, same unfortunate outcome. Two French clubs, Cholet and Le Mans, played on Wednesday evening the first round of the Champions League play-in, a stage allowing access to the top 16 of the European event. But the two representatives of Betclic Elite, despite the home advantage, lost the initial round on their floor. Which will force them to perform away next week if they want to get a good performance at home and keep a chance of joining Strasbourg and Dijon, already qualified.
Faced with the Italians of Sassari (72-93 defeat), the Choletais could never believe in victory. After hanging on for a few minutes (9-10), they sank. The evening ended in correction (22-40, 16th, 51-77, 30th), inflicted in particular at the hands of a well-known elf from the French Championship. American leader Brandon Jefferson, who played for Orléans, Strasbourg and Pau, top scorer in the French elite in 2022, recruited at Christmas by Sassari, set the tone. At the break, he was already at 8 points and 8 assists (11 and 10 in the end), well supported by rear Breein Tyree (11 points) or Vasilis Charalampopoulos (19) within a euphoric collective (14/25 3 points, 29 assists) where six players crossed the 10 point mark.
Enough to disorient a sleepy Mauges club (27-39 on the rebound) which nevertheless remained on three successes in the Championship, one of which was convincing at Le Mans (111-96). The locals’ top scorer, Craig Randall (15 points), shot 5/14.
The leaders of the Mans aphones
The other team in the running, MSB, lost to Patras (68-78). Still alive at the break (30-39), Elric Delord’s men gave up (40-62, 28th) in a third quarter lost 15 to 23. The usual offensive leaders of Le Mans missed out ( De’Vante Jones, 8 points at 2/10, Trevor Hudgins, 14 points but 5/15, an overall shooting rate of 32.3%). The Manceaux turned the lights back on in the fourth period, the only one they won (23-16), behind Williams Narace (17 points). But despite coming close (62-70, 38th), it was too little, too late to hope.
On the Greek side, the third in the Hellenic Championship behind Panathinaikos and Olympiakos relied on its defensive intensity, its more solid recent experience on the European scene and the gunner Hunter Hale (25 points at 10/15, 5/7 at 3 points). Le Mans will travel to Patras next Tuesday, Cholet to Sassari on Wednesday to try to equalize their series.
2024-01-03 21:51:29
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