EThey took their time before returning to the locker room. Took the time for long hugs, big smiles, outpourings of joy which say a lot about the satisfaction, but also the relief, which animated them at the end of a meeting which could have gone wrong, and turned into a nightmare with it their season.
No, Saturday evening, the girls of Basket Landes did not shy away from their pleasure after having qualified for the semi-finals of the Coupe de France, at the end of a match undecided until the end against the Asvel (72-74). A success which ends a series of four defeats such as they have not experienced since the start of the financial year, and launches at the right time a year 2025 which promises to be full of challenges to take up.
Anger found
Starting with returning for a fourth consecutive time to the Accor Arena in Paris, on April 26. A room in which the Landaises lifted the Cup in 2022 and 2023, then lost in the final in 2024 against Bourges, and whose memory has certainly little more motivated a group in search of benchmarks as much as confidence since the start of the year 2025.
In the wake of a renewed defense and aggressiveness (26 defensive rebounds over the entire match), Basket Landes was able to stay the course despite the storm that sometimes blew, and knew how to preserve these two small points of victory. advances, in a knife-edge end to the match, which makes all the difference. Where in the championship, on November 2, the Lyonnaises won after extra time (89-85).
Busy end of February
“Above all, we had revenge and things to prove to ourselves. We hoped that it would fall on the right side because we needed it, after our two defeats against Bourges, including the minus 40 in the championship, the defeat against Charleville before. It was important to implement what we managed to work on in these difficult times. We wanted to concentrate on ourselves,” said the coach, Julie Barennes, afterwards.
-Carried offensively by a once again decisive Luisa Geiselsöder on both sides of the field (20 points and 9 rebounds for 27 ratings) and a powerful Leïla Lacan (16 points), Basket Landes never gave in to panic, during of a real chase: in front at the end of the first quarter (19-17), trailing at half-time (40-39), tied before starting the last quarter (58-58). And here is the blue and white machine restarted at the right time.
Because after a difficult month of January, the Landes club is preparing for an equally busy and exciting end of February with a semi-final scheduled for Saturday 1is March, three days after a potential Euroleague quarter-final second leg. Without forgetting a championship in which Basket Landes, 7emust get back on track as quickly as possible, starting Saturday January 25 with the reception in Charnay (8 p.m.). “I hope that we will use all this positive energy that this will give us to continue,” concluded a reassured but not satisfied Julie Barennes. His players will really need it.
The draw Wednesday at… 8 p.m.!
In addition to Basket Landes, Bourges, Charleville-Mézières and Tarbes also won their ticket for the semi-finals, respectively against Villeneuve-d'Ascq (58-56), Landerneau (72-75) and against Charnay (79-60). . Semi-finals which will take place on Saturday 1is March and whose posters will be known on Wednesday at 8 p.m…. right in the middle of a Basket Landes – Brno vital for the future of the Landes in the Euroleague, and half an hour before that of the Tango match in Salamanca, just as important. Funny timing imagined by the FFBB… The final will be held at the Accor Arena in Paris on Saturday April 26.
