Euro basketball: the Blues held their own against Doncic

The Blues, led by the excellent performances of Alexandre Sarr (12 pts, 5 rebounds) and especially Sylvain Francisco (32 pts), take sole control of their group on this second day and will already be able to see the last 16 in the event of a victory against Israel on Sunday (5 p.m.).

The Olympic runners-up finally found the gap at the end of the fourth quarter, widening the gap with a basket after Elie Okobo fouled a pass from a Sylvain Francisco in great form and a three-pointer from captain Guerschon Yabusele.

Meanwhile? A superb counter from Alexandre Sarr, one of the men in a match that the Blues finally won after having suffered a temporary Luka Doncic storm.

"No Doncic, no party," read a banner held up by a female fan, lost among the fans chanting "MVP" for the NBA star.

Indeed, for a good part of the match, the Lakers point guard put on a show he is used to against the Blues, like when, at Euro-2022, he strolled with 47 points in total.

At the break, Luka "Magic" had already scored 24 points and often forced his opponent into fouling with 13 successful free throws out of 14 (25/31 for the Slovenians at the break, 38/46 in total).

"There were a lot of fouls, sometimes I wondered if I was in a basketball gym or a combat gym," said coach Aleksander Sekulic after the match.

Francisco steals the show

Constantly poisoned, his leader finally finished with 39 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists. But he was much more restrained in the second half.

And if the Blues, who started this Euro with a rejuvenated and reshuffled squad, suffered (47-54 at half-time) they were above all always in contact, already well helped by Francisco, who stole the show from his Slovenian counterpart.

The 27-year-old point guard simply shattered his French team points record (32 pts) while at the same time erasing his best rebound mark (7) and delivering 5 assists.

"Every time I went on the attack, I was aggressive on the court," he said, satisfied, player of the match trophy in hand. "I either had a basket, or a pass, or I had a foul. That's my strength (...) but the whole team did some good things."

His teammate Jaylen Hoard hailed him as an "incredible" player, who "brought a lot of energy and creativity."

Alongside Elie Okobo, one of the five French players to have yet passed the ten-point mark (along with Francisco, Zaccharie Risacher, Alexandre Sarr and Bilal Coulibaly), he allowed the French to resist Doncic's final attempts.

And bring the Blues a little closer to their first objective: Riga and the final phase.

"I have the impression that we are growing more and more," Sylvain Francisco rejoiced, "even if everyone says that we have less experience, that we are the youngest team, we are trying to prove that we can play at a high level."

With a successful first major test.