A feat, this is what the protected Benoît Marty will have to achieve this Saturday evening, against Aulnoye, a leader who shares first place with Toulouse. For Aulnoye, who will host Angers and travel to Reims during the last two days, this match in Chartres appears to be the simplest.
Firstly because Chartres has never pinned a Top 5 team this season. Secondly, because the first leg was a massacre. The Chartraines had never existed, suffering one of the biggest setbacks (105-59) since they played in Ligue 2.
The slap of the first leg in Aulnoye
“I had never seen that in my entire coaching career”, underlined Benoît Marty the day after this slap in the face, qualifying these forty minutes in the North as “a collective shipwreck”.
Marty: “Never seen such a talented player”
On November 28, in the North, the CCBF had experienced an ordeal and suffered a hurricane named Shanavia Dowdell. The American pivot had scored 24 points, swallowed 18 rebounds, caused 8 faults, intercepted 4 balls, offered 4 assists and twice countered adversity for an overall score of 46! The US tornado alone had swept through the Chartres collective, assessed at a tiny 41!
Shanavia Dowdell (33) is a monster in this Ligue 2. “In seven years in Chartres, I’ve never seen such a talented player,” said Marty just before the rouste of the first leg. She is really above the rest and would have her place in the Women’s League… ”
She panics the stats of Ligue 2
The French elite, Dowdell knew it ten years ago with Toulouse. His first season abroad was complicated, and marked by an injury. She then went into exile in Australia where she was named in the WNBL All Star Five with a record of 15.9 points and 9.3 rebounds. After two years on the island-continent, she returned to Europe, in the Belgian club Waregem (2013-2018).
For three years in Aulnoye (interspersed with a new visit to Australia in the summer of 2019), Dowdell has panicked the stats. This season, she is running at 19.6 points on average, far ahead of the second scorer, the Montbrisonnaise Tina Trebec (16.8), at 12.2 rebounds (the second is at 9.4) and stifles the competition in the Eval (27.1), still far ahead of her runner-up, the Chartraine Kekelly Elenga who points to 16.7!
In Mondeville next season
In the last match against La Tronche / Meylan, the Alabama native once again disgusted the competition with 29 units, 22 rebounds for an artistic score of 46! The only time the American machine got stuck was during the recovery in January, in Montbrison (4 points, 8 rebounds for 9 to evaluate), which did not prevent Aulnoye from winning easily. (55-78). Shanavia Dowdell has since resumed cruising speed.
Coutée for several years, Shanavia Dowdell will play next season at Mondeville and will be joined by the leader of Aulnoye, Sabrine Bouzenna.
Chartres (Halle Jean-Cochet), Saturday March 20 at 8 p.m.
C’Chartres BF : Belleka, Hillotte, Ewodo, Tayeau, Bienvenu, Elenga, Marié, Koita, Colombo, Dramé.
Aulnoye : Cammas, Herminjard (Sui), Bouzenna, M’Baye, Dowdell (USA), Prodhomme, Forestier, Piper, Hamaoui, Mipoka.
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Jean-André Provost
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