The French team could not have dreamed of a better start to preparing for the World Cup, offering itself great success and without experiencing any physical glitches against a Tunisian selection which is beginning a new cycle and lacked automatisms.
The French took the measure of their opponent after five minutes, taking the lead on two 3-point baskets from Nando De Colo and Guerschon Yabusele (12-9). At +8 after 10 minutes after a 3-point from Elie Okobo, the Blues were then able to put on a show with the official showman Yves Pons, who was celebrating his first selection in the absence of Mathias Lessort, to launch the festivities of a big clap.
Moustapha Fall went there with his dunk, just like Rudy Gobert, served by Nando De Colo with a blind pass. The good defensive sequences helping (12 points conceded in the second quarter), France was already pointing to +15 at the break (53-28).
Defend well to attack better
The Blues were able to unfold after the break, still relying on this iron defense (2 points conceded in the third quarter!). Everyone was then able to take advantage of it, like Sylvain Francisco and Evan Fournier who unlocked his counter with a 3-point in the corner. On a fierce dunk from Rudy Gobert, well served by Frank Ntilikina, the gap then increased to +40 (70-30) to finish at +45 after three quarters (75-30).
The Tunisians suffered until the end against serious tricolors over 40 minutes and determined to finish well. Rudy Gobert once again offered himself a big dunk and the Ntilikina-Yabusele-Ouattara trio was able to fire successfully from afar. Winners 93-36 after two last dunks from Guerschon Yabusele and Yves Pons, Vincent Collet’s men are now expected in Montpellier this Wednesday evening for their second preparatory match against Nikola Vucevic’s Montenegro.
“We really wanted to come and get into good habits right away, regardless of the opponent and where we were in the preparation. That was the goal and I’m very happy with what we did tonight. We tell ourselves that every minute counts, and tonight every quarter counted. We will continue like this in the future”said Rudy Gobert (11 points, 8 rebounds) after the game.
Photo credit : Armand Lenoir
