The Blues won a big victory against Luka Doncic’s Slovenia for their second game in the first round of the Eurobasket this Saturday. She brings them closer to a qualification for the 8th finals which will be official if the men of Frédéric Faux won this Sunday against Israel.
The man in the tricolor side was the leader of Kaunas (Lithuania) Sylvain Francisco. The former Parisian scored 31 points and put France back on the place.
Man of the match, he went to the last second … or almost.
Let’s get back. There are 1.1 seconds left to play before the end of the match. The Blues lead 101-92 and the victory is ensured. Francisco shakes the hand of Luka Doncic to signify the end of hostilities.
Everyone has their hands on the hips, the match is “finished”. It was then that, like a Filou, the Kaunas player goes to the basket and adds two new points to the Blues counter. They are useless except for the alarm point.
Above all, they provoke the anger of the Slovenes. In basketball, scoring when the match is unofficially finished and the outcome can no longer change, it is not done. Question of courtesy and respect for the opponent.
The confusion settled for a few moments and everything could have stopped there if two French players had not entered the field from the sidelines: Zaccharie Risacher and Nadir Hifi. They wanted to help their leader taken between a few furious Slovenes. In tracksuit, the Parisian received a disqualifying fault which could deprive him of the match against Israel.
The FIBA disciplinary committee must rule in the evening.
Fortunately, everything has quickly returned to normal. In the last second to play, after a dead time, Slovenia returned to France the currency of its play by deciding, strongly, to play the action. And the Slovenes marked a 3 -point shot with a well -mild defense of… Sylvain Francisco. The French could then give a frank hugs to the Slovenes.
