The French basketball team won, Sunday at the Futuroscope Arena, near Poitiers, its second victory against Cyprus in three days, again sluggish (85-70) but brings it closer to Euro 2025. The Blues occupy the head of Group E with four victories in as many qualifying days.
Once again without their players playing in the NBA and the Euroleague, they, like in Nicosia (75-59), struggled against the 82nd nation in the world, for the first match at their head in France under coach Frédéric Fauthoux.
A lack of control at the end of the match
Unlike Thursday, however, they managed to widen a significant gap after a quarter of an hour of play (39-20), thanks to their domination inside, a certain skill outside and good ball circulation. .
But they then slowed down, mainly offensively, to only have a 13 lead at halftime (47-34) then only eight (72-64) 4 min 30 sec from time.
A winning shot from Hugo Benitez then a dunk from Yoan Makoundou immediately allowed them to regain their composure (+13) and experience a rather calm end to the match although not really under control.
They were definitely safe just over a minute from the buzzer on a new dunk, on the counterattack, from Makoundou (83-70).
The French team was once again able to count on the activity of the power forward (11 points and 5 rebounds), as well as that of Amine Noua (14 pts and 5 rebounds) and Axel Bouteille (15 pts and 7 rbvds).
The great hope in the position of leader, Nolan Traoré (18 years old), gave him a copy (8 pts at 2/11 shooting, 3 assists and 2 lost balls) even messier than Thursday, although it was well started (5 pts in the first quarter).
France
