First match of the second round of Euroleague for Basket Landes. Basket Landes, which, this Wednesday evening, in Mitterrand, hosted Bourges. Almost traditional Franco-French confrontation between two teams who know each other when it comes to sewing shorts.
Twenty year old story! Olivier Lafargue, the manager of Bourges, trained Julie Barennes, the boss of the Landes, when he was the game director of the Bleues de Gascogne at the start of their fabulous epic. That the technician from Aire sur l'Adour initiated. Céline Dumerc, sports director of BL, played Bourges where she sublimated her Basketball queen from 2003 to 2018, including under the orders of Olivier Lafargue… before ending her rich career with fireworks at…Basket Landes! Sic! The news remains. In the domestic championship Bourges is first, BL, second one point behind. On October 5, during their last confrontation in the Women's Basketball League, Landes won in Mitterrand against Tangos 68-55. RAS. One might have thought Bourges was on a cycle renewal with the departure at the end of last season of its historic pearls. Nay! Bourges is compact and homogeneous. Leans on Diaby, Astier, Guapo, Duchet, who have little to envy of the old ones. Bourges which arrives at Moun with its rich workforce. But… the same for BL. Geiselsoder, Bussière, Macquet, Djaldi are not partridges of the year. But then. Let's go see it.
And presto! Three points, three small points, yet not really the wages of fear for Basket Landes. Because the Gascon young ladies led the meeting throughout. 42-39 to the lemons, 64-25 at the end of the third quarter. Subsequently the packed and exciting match, of great intensity, lively and rather brilliant in the first part, then got tougher. The last two quarter slices, more spicy than sweet, came down to intensity, physicality and rind. Bourges, picking up the score, then radicalized the game, sometimes going beyond what was correct, culpable faults favored by sometimes deleterious refereeing. The Landes group in any case did not give in and the girls in blue, on the floor, all made the cut. Djaldi-Tabdi and Slocum score 14 points each, Ewodo 12, Djekoundade 10. The same Clarince Djaldi, imperial captain, who leads the troop, with still the strong presence of Geiselsoder and Macquet on the rebounds and Lacan in the restarts. The Landes defense, master of time. A defense which reduced the possibility of Bourges to impotence. So to blame. And therefore to defeat. There’s good Basket Landes!
