A magnificent clearing in a complicated season. Lagging behind in the Championship (the two clubs are respectively 10th and 13th in the ranking), Strasbourg and Dijon put on a nice show this Saturday afternoon at the Accor Arena, in the final of the Coupe de France. The JDA ended up taking the best to win the second trophy in its history in the competition. Thanks to Vitalis Chikoko (20 points) and Giovan Oniangue (16 points) in particular, the Dijonnais built their success in a one-way “money time”.
The duel was very indecisive for a long time. The JDA, solid in defense and very fair in attack from the start, made a first break in the middle of the second quarter (32-23) before the SIG got its head back upright, even if Chikoko gave his team a short advantage at the break (42-41). In a crazy offensive sequence that occurred at the end of the third quarter, the two teams responded in quick succession and Tyrius McGee (19 points), particularly sharp, gave Strasbourg the upper hand (55-58).
Dijon went 15-0 at the end of the match
After a brief breakdown in collective skill at the start of the last period, Oniangue and Chikoko put the Dijonnais back in front (68-62), before Phil Booth (13 points) and Hugo Invernizzi (6 points) put the two teams back on level terms (68-68), promise of a spectacular end to the match. But the JDA flew through the “money time” by stringing together three long-distance shots, Leyton Hammonds (11 points) and Joshua Obiesie (8 points) taking charge of completing an impressive 15-0 which extinguished Strasbourg’s hopes.
“I am very proud of my teamreacted Dijon coach, Laurent Legname, who returned to the club at the end of 2023. We really struggled this year, we don’t deserve everything that happened to us but we never gave up and tonight is the reward for our efforts. Some will say it’s just a Cup, but it’s an extraordinary title. » With this first title in four years and its victory in the Leaders Cup in 2020, Dijon is more than saving its season.
Legname: “Our defense made the difference”
