SENDAI (FIBA World
Championship) - A third quarter resurgence enabled France to save face and win
81-61 against Venezuela to reach the second round a night after an embarrassing
loss to Lebanon.
With the win, France finished second in their group and will play Angola in
the second round knockout stages.
"That will be a very tough game for us," France head coach Claude Bergeaud
said after the game. "They are a very good team, play with a lot of energy and
they are a great three-point shooting team."
And three-point shooting has not been a strongpoint of France's offense over
the last two games. After shooting three of 26 from behind the arc yesterday,
they weren't much better today going three for 22.
But Les Bleus started playing their suffocating style of defense - something
which was lacking against Lebanon - and were able to get their running game
going, leading to easy baskets, including several spectacular dunks.
France came out strong and raced out to a 22-8 lead behind the solid play of
Frederic Weis and Florient Pietrus who scored inside early and often.
However, Boris Diaw had to sit down with two fouls, and in his absence the
team then conceded a 9-2 run that saw Venezuela only seven points adrift at the
end of the first quarter.
Nestor Salazar's men closed within four, 24-20, early in the second period
before the Pietrus brothers - Mickael and Florient - and Ronny Turiaf gave
France a much needed lift to regain a seven point lead, 36-29.
Diaw checked back into the game and scored France's last five points of the
half for a 41-31 advantage going into the locker room.
Venezuela got close once again in the early stages of the third quarter, with
Tomas Aguilera's three-pointer cutting the lead in half, 41-36 before Les Bleus
played like they did at the start of the game, moving the ball around and
finding easy scoring opportunities.
Mickael Pietrus made a three-point play and on the next possession set his
brother Florent up for an emphatic dunk and all of a sudden France had their
biggest lead of the game at 52-37.
And with some great ball movement, they extended that lead further as
Frederic Weis made a skyhook before finding point guard Aymeric Jeanneau wide
open in the left corner for a three-point shot - the first France made after
missing on all 13 first half attempts.
