The French basketball team crushed Hungary 81-40 on Monday at Mouilleron-le-Captif in their last match of the first qualifying phase for the 2023 World Cup. They will therefore tackle the second phase with three wins on the clock.
That’s a good thing done ! After their misstep in Montenegro on Friday (70-69), the French men’s basketball team corrected the situation against Hungary for their last Group E match of qualifying for the 2023 World Cup. The Blues won 81-40 at Mouilleron-le-Captif (Vendée), thanks in particular to an exceptional third quarter, won 29-2!
The start of the match was however a bit sluggish for Vincent Collet’s men (private, let’s remember, of major players like Gobert, De Colo, Fournier or Batum), who were certainly never led by the Hungarians, but still took time to widen the gap, the fault in particular of a few blunders and many lost balls (9 in the first half, including 3 for Terry Tarpey alone, 17 in total). So that at the end of the first quarter, the score was only 15-11, then 30-25 in the 17th.
17-0 to start the second half
But it was precisely at this moment that the French decided to wake up. They first inflicted a 9-0 on Hungary (long distance basket of Amath M’Baye and Théo Maledon in particular) to reach the locker room by leading 39-25, then started the second half with an improbable 17 -0! The Hungarians had their heads under water, and the Blues gave them no hope of coming back, with more 3-point shots from M’Baye and Maledon during this series.
Hungary stopped the bleeding in the 26th minute on a lay-up from Marko Filipovity (56-27), but France resumed their march forward with a 12-0 to end the third quarter, with a collective game where everything the world could score. The last quarter, concluded with a score of 13-13, will remain anecdotal because the matter was heard a long time ago. The twelve Frenchmen present on the match sheet played at least 8 minutes and all scored. The palm goes to Théo Maledon, who confirmed his excellent match in Montenegro by scoring 15 points (5/7 on shots) and taking 3 rebounds, and to Mouhammadou Jaiteh, author of 13 points and 7 rebounds.
The continuation at the end of August
This success allows the French to approach the last qualifying group, Pool K, with five victories on the clock, the results against the other qualified teams being retained. The Blues are tied with Lithuania (trapped on Monday at home by the Czech Republic) and have a victory ahead of Montenegro, and two over the Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Hungary.
They will face the Lithuanians, Bosnians and Czechs between August 24, 2022 and February 26, 2023, and the top three from the group will qualify for the 2023 World Cup, which will take place in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines. In the meantime, the next deadline arrives this week, with the announcement by Vincent Collet of the group that will prepare for the Euro, which will take place in September in Germany.
French markers: Cornelie (4), Jaiteh (13), Maledon (15), Ouattara (6), Tarpey (5), Albicy (5), Labeyrie (5), Lacombe (4), Lang (3), M’Baye (10 ), Okobo (2), Pear tree (9)
