French and Americans are now used to competing at major international meetings. This is as true for the “old” as for the young.
Two years after losing the final of the U19 World Cup by nothing, Zaccharie Risacher’s France finds the United States (5:30 p.m.) this time in the semi-final stage of the 2023 edition of the competition.
In the other semi-final, Turkey and Spain will also compete (8:00 p.m.) for a place in the final. These encounters come after historically unbalanced quarter-finals.
Second in their group in the group stage, behind Spain, the tricolor formation initially had no difficulty in repelling Madagascar (119-56) in the eighth, before continuing as easily in the next round against Serbia ( 98-59). Melvin Ajinça, cousin of Alexis Ajinça, finished as the game’s top scorer with 23 points, while Zacharie Perrin had a full line (16 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocks).
« We approached the match with a good mentality. We respected Serbia, which is a very good team. We ended up surpassing them, so I’m proud of the whole team. This shows that we may be on the right track. It’s a very good victory for us, and people probably didn’t expect us to win so early. », delivered Alexandre Sarrauthor of 10 points.
For their part, the Americans did not do more in detail by winning the quarter against Japan with a lead of more than 40 points (105-61). Cody Williams, Omaha Biliew and Mark Armstrong all scored 15 points in the game.
Spain also had no difficulty reaching this stage, easily repelling Argentina (85-47), after having atomized Lebanon in the eighth (102 to… 20!). Finally Turkey won the quarter against Canada (97-73).
As a result, the average gap of almost 37 points in four quarter-final games is a new record in the matter, that of the most unbalanced quarter-final series in history.
Finally, it should be noted that if France went to the end, Melvin Ajinça and Zacharie Perrin could each pose as potential MVPs. The two young men are currently in the Top 10 of the best scorers in the competition, with 19 points (2nd) and 15 points (7th) respectively on average. We recall that two years ago, Chet Holmgren was preferred to Victor Wembanyama for this trophy.
2023-07-01 08:16:00
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