The Blues validate their ticket for the 2023 World Cup

Mission accomplished for the French basketball team. The blues have validated their ticket for the World Cup-2023 after their big victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina (92-56), during the last day of qualification, Monday evening in Pau.

Three days after their demonstration in Lithuania (90-65), Vincent Collet’s men needed a victory to go to Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan, where the competition will take place from August 25 to September 10, 2023. an opponent who had surprised them at the end of August during the first leg (96-90) just before the Eurobasket but also deprived of his captains Jusuf Nurkic (Portland, NBA) and Dzanan Musa (Real Madrid, Euroleague), they did not never trembled, winning all the quarters, with a division of time and mark between all the actors of this autumn gathering.

Wembanyama shines on the first points

“Honestly, I am satisfied, in addition to this two out of two (Lithuania and Bosnia), with the way, even if this evening we were a little less fluid, a little more in difficulty to have rhythm”, admitted the coach Vincent Collet. “They played a lot in the zone, which slowed us down in transmissions”.

For his first outing in Blue on French soil, the prodigy Victor Wembanyama once again distinguished himself by scoring the first 7 tricolor points in the space of 54 seconds (7-2, 4) without materializing the following attempts. His time on the bench visibly reinvigorated him, with a more refined basketball on his return and the same offensive dynamic (7 points almost in a row) to win Bosnians who let go just before the break (40-27).

In the art of deterrence, where he is also expected, “Wemby” and his sprawling arms (3 blocks, 2 interceptions) have several times thwarted Bosnians forced to force a few situations. The probable number 1 in the NBA draft finished the game with 19 points (18 evaluation), one unit less than Friday at Panevezys for his Lithuanian baptism. “Victor had an average game very clearly but as he is an exceptional player, even when he is average, he is still rather good”, summarized Collet.

An electric dunk from Sylvain Francisco

In his wake, Yoan Makoundou was also the author of a solid performance during the first act (9 points), as well as the interior Damien Inglis during the 3rd quarter (9 points) or the exterior Juhann Begarin who maximized his presence (17 points in 19 minutes). As for the palm for the basket of the evening, it was shared between this electric dunk of the leader Sylvain Francisco, best French scorer Friday in Lithuania and author of 8 points in Pau, and this basket with 3 points suspended from Axel Toupane, who made the Palais des Sports roar.

After the break, the Balkan players, carried by Kenan Kamenjas (18 points), tried to hang on before finally exploding in the last quarter (33-12) against the euphoric Blues.