By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
France, as expected, beat Belgium; however, the final score was 92-64, and the performance of the “Bleus,” despite missing some of their main stars, including Victor Wembanyama, was impressive.
“As I said before the game, we needed to make a strong debut as a team, and I think that’s what we did”, said Isaïa Cordinier during the post-game press conference, who was also part of the team last summer in the Olympics and can make the comparison.
France had a very balanced performance with five scorers in double digits, none of them more than 12 points, and all 12 players of the roster scoring.
So Cordinier explained how this version of the roster works: “Ι think that everybody saw why they are here today, they bring their qualities to the team, Bilal (Coulibaly) was unguardable going to the basket, Zach (Risacher) shooting, cutting, getting offensive rebounds, and scoring… we know Nadir (Hifi). Everybody is bringing something to this team, and that’s the definition of this group; the danger comes from everywhere”.
Coach Frederic Fauthoux said that he was happy with his team’s defensive effort and elaborated on his plan to take advantage of his roster’s depth, youth, and athleticism.
Fauthoux knows that it all starts with the energy his players have and wants to use this to the maximum: “It’s important for us to play with 12 players, because we play with a lot of intensity. We want to put a lot of energy into the court, so to stay like this, it’s difficult if you want to play for a long time in this competition. So we have a lot of talent, so I can do this rotation and keep the intensity level very high. We want to play a lot of time like this, for a lot of games, and I guess this is the way”.
Photo Credit: FIBA