Babb, with three points, puts his team back in front (9-12, 6th). Watson takes over at mid-distance or with a lay-up (14-18, 8th) then Fofana steals the ball and finishes with a devastating dunk (14-20, 9th). Cornely concludes this first quarter with a shot under the basket (16-22, 10th).
Gravelines dominates in the racket
Gravelines leaves with the same dynamic shown at the end of the first quarter. It’s Bezhanishvili’s turn, in the racket, to cause problems for the Porteloise defense (21-30, 13th). From three points then from the free throw, Domon gives BCM twelve points in advance at mid-quarter (25-37, 15th).
The Gravelinois dominate the Portelois thanks to their interior play and even manage to grab a few offensive rebounds and fouls allowing them to score a few more free throws (29-42, 18th).
Chery commits an unsportsmanlike mistake which allows Portel to restart, Zorkis’ three free throws being followed in stride by a three-pointer from Gholson and a lay-up from Diawara (39-45, 19th). Babb, shortly before the buzzer, finished with three points (39-48, 20th).
Portelois Zorkis opens this third quarter with a three-pointer. Then Gholston adds three more points. The ESSM comes back to three points behind the BCM (45-48, 22nd).
Babb calms the Porteloise enthusiasm by taking two three-point shots from his bag (45-54, 23rd). The Gravelinois regained a greater advantage thanks to Chery’s dunk (45-56, 24th) but Portel closed the ranks in defense.
The ESSM reduced the gap thanks to their three-point shots (52-57, 28th) and Cornely stupidly lost a ball, which had the gift of annoying Jean-Christophe Prat. The Gravelinois are five points ahead at the start of the last quarter (55-60, 30th).
Domon gets a foul and scores his team’s first two points of the last quarter on a free throw. But the BCM does not seem calm (57-62, 32nd).
But Watson, passing or shooting, pulls out all the stops and gives some fresh air and confidence to his team (64-76, 37th). Le Portel gets angry, like Février who takes a technique.
There are two minutes left to play and BCM Gravelines are fourteen points ahead (64-78, 38th). The Prat gang calmly managed the end of the match and won the derby at their neighbor Portelo as well as their fourth victory in five championship matches (69-82).
Technical sheet
ESSM Le Portel – BCM Gravelines: (69-82)
Score per quarter (16-22; 22-26; 16-12; 14-22) / Cumulative score (16-22; 39-48; 55-60; 69-82).
Scorers
ESSM Le Portel: Pinckney (8 pts), Ba (0), Gholston (20), Konaté (2), Diawara (10), Meyniel (2), Kelly (0), Le Meut (0), Février (15) , Nunge (4), Zorkis (8)
BCM Gravelines : Cattoor (0 pt), Watson (17), Letailleur (0), Bezhanishvili (6), Boisdur (0), Fofana (6), Agee (6), Lamart (0), Babb (23), Cornely (4), Domon (9), Chery (11).
