Les Bleues carefree against the Belgians in a preparation match for the World Cup

The French women’s basketball team, bronze medalists at the Olympic Games last summer, continued their flawless preparation for the World Cup (September 22 – October 1 in Australia) by easily dominating Belgium (74-55), Friday evening in Pau.

Twelve days after their very easy success (87-52) and without real lessons against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Marseille, the visit of the neighbor from across the Quiévrain allowed us to see more of the potential of the Tokyo Olympic bronze medalists. , deprived since Tuesday of Sandrine Gruda, the best scorer in the history of the Blue, injured in the calf and forfeited for the World Cup. Evolving once again without their WNBA executives – Marine Johannès, back in France, was in civilian clothes in the audience, Gabby Williams and Iliana Rupert will join the group either just before the departure for the antipodes or directly in Australia – we carefully scrutinized the tricolor interior sector against more consistent opposition. In the absence of the oldest Helena Ciak (32 years old) or Marième Badiane (27 years old), the coach Jean-Aimé Toupane appreciated the rise in power of Alexia Charterau, offensive leader for the occasion (13 points, including 9 in the only 2nd quarter, 6 rebounds, 21 evaluation), with a very interesting complementarity with Ana Tadic (14 points, best scorer of the match), two girls of the 1998 generation. at this level, it is to give them experience, explained Toupane. Our captain Sandrine (Gruda) is not there, we will try to work with others, young people, who want to. We were all young one day, we just have to give them a chance and let them seize this opportunity”.

defensive identity

First balanced (16-16, 10th), the debates with the players of Valéry Demory, the French coach of the +Belgian Cats+, turned to the advantage of the teammates of the local stage Marine Fauthoux (37-24 , 18th) in the wake of the Chartereau site, before the outside Belgians managed to reduce the gap a little at the break (41-36). The squad review (12 players more than 10 minutes away) continued on the restart with a consistency that could still be improved, but with a rising defense (19 points conceded in the 2nd period) – “it’s our identity” recalls Fauthoux – to maintain a gap of fifteen to twenty points, like the new captain Sarah Michel, still as determined and catchy. “I am satisfied with the performance of my players. Even if we are still in the preparation phase, there is still a lot of work. But we can’t deny that the kids give their all or try and for me that’s the most important thing, ”summarized Toupane.

Les Bleues will meet these same Belgians on Sunday (4 p.m.) in Kortrijk before flying to Australia on September 9 where three other preparation matches await them against the Australian host on the 16th, Belgium a third time on the 18th, and finally the American ogre on the 19th.