The writing of the scenario predicted that La Rochelle – Angers on December 27, 2023 would not be a basketball match like any other. In one corner, the leader, remaining on 10 victories in a row, in the other, the penultimate, 5 defeats in a row. Nothing too bad at the moment, a clash of extremes like we see everywhere, all the time. But the EAB (Étoile Angers Basket) came to 6 suitable players, including 2 (the Espoirs Zénon, 14 points, 9 rebounds, and Tanguy) who had not…
The writing of the scenario predicted that La Rochelle – Angers on December 27, 2023 would not be a basketball match like any other. In one corner, the leader, remaining on 10 victories in a row, in the other, the penultimate, 5 defeats in a row. Nothing too bad at the moment, a clash of extremes like we see everywhere, all the time. But the EAB (Etoile Angers Basket) came with 6 suitable players, including 2 (the Espoirs Zénon, 14 points, 9 rebounds, and Tanguy) who had never before walked a Pro B floor.
The cause: five injuries in a few days, an epidemic. Although the nuance may be there. “Injuries and epidemics are two different things,” Aymeric Jeanneau tells us in an interview to be found on sudouest.fr, where the Stade general director responds to the Angevin complaint, the latter affirming that “despite the agreement of the League national basketball court, Stade Rochelais [avait] refused to postpone the meeting.
Angers will not give up
League agreement or not, the question did not arise, and there was a match in every sense of the word. A match without the 24-second clock, managed manually by the scorer’s table due to a bug. Weirdness when you hold us… A match that the Angevins attack really hard, on a commando mission, with their bench of cripples, between crutches and bandages, who stand up and shout like one man at each basket. They put in a lot and lead… 21-4 (6th), after a 3-pointer made by Gauthier following a miss from Leray (ranked 9th among U21 Betclic/Pro B prospects by the Sports Management School on the day).
Julien Cortey goes into zone defense, Tray Buchanan sticks two winners as if to say stop (16-26, 8th), Thomas Ville does good in turn (23-30, 12th), Cherif Haidara does the same on both sides of the floor (32-35, 15th), before having his right ankle treated and then returning. The passage in front is established thanks to Löfberg, the man in form last week (37-36, 16th) and Gaston-Neveur, with a sold-out crowd, thinks that the hardest part is done.
Angers will not give up (43-49, 22nd), determined. His 7-0 at the restart indicates this, as a reminder to the Yellow and Black that it will be necessary to fight 40 minutes to overcome it. Johan Löfberg and Tray Buchanan equalize (55-55, 24th), La Rochelle breathes at the half-hour mark but just a little (69-64). When Haidara goes for the lay-up, it’s between two 3-point bombs from Averette, Buchanan’s former teammate in Cyprus, and Ruel (77-74, 34th), in first intention. The objective of casting doubt on the SRB remains fully relevant. Until captain Clerc took it upon himself to close the story (90-79, 38th) and 2023 with a victory (100-92).
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Alexis Tanghe (La Rochelle pivot) “It was a tough win to come by. Angers evolved at a very high tempo and above all without any pressure. At the start of the match, we fell into their rhythm. They were very clever and it was difficult to stop them. So we went into the zone. We managed to win this evening (Wednesday November 27) because we put points on fast play by making them cause fouls. It was a frustrating, weird match. We didn’t really find our defensive DNA. At one point, we were too focused on the outside shot when we should have made more mistakes…”
2023-12-27 22:01:21
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