By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Moving on from the comfortable win against Poland in the 2022 EuroBasket Semifinals, France and head coach Vincent Collet set sights on gold.
“This is the final. Since the beginning, we have been struggling to get to our best level. We all try together and we are exactly at the point we expected. But it was a long way. We saw in the Eighthfinal and Quarterfinal, how much we had to fight to get here,” commented the senior national team selector in the postgame press conference referring to the overtime wins over Turkey and Italy in the previous rounds, “Now, we just need to be ourselves.”
The Blues will take on Germany or Spain at Berlin’s Mercedes-Benz Arena to wrap up the tournament Sunday. On Friday, Guerschon Yabusele was the driving force with 22 points behind 9/12 field goals, four rebounds, and two steals.
“We just played our basketball. We were really good on defense and were aggressive. We made everything hard for them. And we played good offense, shared the ball,” said the Real Madrid power forward, “We played and stayed together until the end of the game. We were really focused on getting this win, rest, and getting ready for Sunday’s game.”
“The most important is how we started the game, our will and determination,” added Collet regarding the game versus Poland, “That made the difference.”
A confident display flourished by effective showings on both ends of the court. Poland’s A.J. Slaughter was quick to praise the defense of France, especially Gran Canaria teammate Andrew Albicy. “I think Albicy did a very good job on me. That’s my teammate on Gran Canaria. So, he knows a lot about me, seeing each other in practice. And I have played for Collet before, so he knows I am a strong left-handed player and they kind of iced me to the right. But they kind of took us all away from our sets, made us play far away from the basket,” he said.
“France also played a great offensive game,” added head coach Igor Milicic, “They were sharing the ball, over 30 assists. That’s a remarkable job.” France dished out 32 assists in the win, highlighted by Thomas Heurtel’s six dimes.
Photo Credit: FIBA.BASKETBALL