Basketball. Caen qualified, Quimper eliminated: the lights turn green

The Caen Basket Calvados season has been too crazy to rejoice before its time. However, this Sunday, May 5, 2024, particularly smiled on the Caen basketball players. Le Havre winners in a Sports Palace still crazy (76-64), they qualified for the quarter-finals of the play-offs and, at the same time, learned the surprise elimination of Quimper. The Bretons were 21 points ahead of Rueil in the match they were playing at home. However, they lost after overtime (83-86).

Tours before a half more accessible?

This result eliminates a serious candidate for promotion, against whom Caen had conceded a fatal defeat in the second phase, and above all allows us to regain home advantage in the event of a semi-final. If the Cébécistes pass the Tours obstacle, they will face Rueil or Mulhouse, two teams from group B, to try to reach the final.

Tours is a big contender. Is it easier to play Rueil or Mulhouse than Tours? I’m not sure at all.

The projection, Stéphane Eberlin necessarily does it. Not Mounir Bernaoui. The Caen captain sees no further than the next match, Friday May 10, 2024 in Tours. “We are capable of winning there if we use the same intensity as in our last two matches against Le Havre,” he said.

“The priority is to fight a lot”

For the interior, there is no doubt that the key lies in this register. “It’s unfortunate to say because we are basketball players, but the priority is to fight a lot, to give of yourself. » Considering the quality of its individuals and its bench depth without equal in Nationale 1, Caen must first work on the fundamentals.

In reality, these are simple things. You don’t have to be a super tactician or a super basketball player. You just have to give it and, then, the game happens.

Against Le Havre, at the Palais des Sports, he even arrived well. Fabrice Courcier, the opposing coach, highlighted the “altruism” of the Caennais. The ball circulated (21 assists, 14 lost balls on Sunday), when the Caennais appeared almost paralyzed in Quimper, against Chartres and at Le Havre during their three previous losses.

Another big test against Tours

We will also have to maintain these skills in Tours, trying to raise the level of skill despite the fatigue of the moment. Tours, which aims to climb like Caen, will again be a big test. The CBC will approach it with its head right side up, unlike the first round against Le Havre, when it was still necessary to digest the immediate failure to rise.

We had to remobilize. We are finally ready. We showed that we had character after these two big matches.

The Normans are doubly warned. They lost in Tours in the second phase, due to a lack of fight (86-74). “(Fabien) Paschall and (Scott) Suggs gave us 50 points (47 exactly, editor’s note) between us. We didn’t take them all the way, we were too passive. We need a lot of rhythm. You have to run, you have to have fun. » Caen understood this well on the return by winning 81-64.

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