Bourges hold off Basket Landes

Céline Dumerc from Bourges Basket mentioned in an interview earlier in the week in a French newspaper about her experience playing in the French Cup against Basket Landes and the special atmosphere at Landes.

Basket Landes got off to a good start with a trey by Marion Laborde to open the scoring. Bourges soon got into their stride with Emméline Ndongue doing most of the damage to take the lead (8-5).

Both teams continued to exchange baskets for the rest of the period with Bourges holding on the advantage (15-13) by the end of the first period with 9 points coming from Ndongue.

Basket Landes refused to let Bourges get away and the teams were level (19-19) after 13 minutes of play.

The lead was to change hands on four occasions with Bourges going into the interval leading (29-26).

The two clubs continued their cat and mouse game all through the third period. Ana Perovic regained the lead briefly for the home side (32-31).

Bourges managed to regain the lead through Ana Lelas. They went into the final period with the largest lead of the game (38-33) off a trey by Katia Manic.

Bourges appeared to have had the game in their control as they stretched their lead (41-33) within the first minute of the final period.

Basket Landes were not able to go ahead again. But with just under four minutes to play Naignouma Coulibaly made it a 2-point game (44-46).

Coulibaly had the chance to level the game from the free-throw line but missed both free-throws.

Ndongue was once again on hand for Bourges for her 17th point of the game.

Basket Landes run out of luck and with the game in the last minutes Alessandra Santos De Oliveira split a pair of free-throws for Bourges.

The game unfortunately became a little ugly which resulted in a technical foul awarded against Bourges.

Laborde was unable to convert any of the free-throws. When Manic split a pair of Bourges (50-44) with less than 20 seconds to play, the chance was gone for Basket Landes.

Ekaterina Dimitrova scored the last basket of the match but once again it was too late.

Bourges survived (50-46) and are back on top for at least one night.

LFB basketball news from COB Calais

COB Calais' present to their supporters was not only free entry for their match against Union Hainaut Basket. They rewarded them with a comprehensive victory (90-69).

Anne-Sophie Pagnier led the COB attack with 20 points as she shot 8-of-10 from the field that included 4–of-5 from the land of many.

Lauren Neaves compiled a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds while Sarah Leemans (left) had a perfect shooting day with 4-of-4 from the field and the free-throw line for her 13 points.

COB Calais did not have it all their way and trailed (7-2) after only 90 seconds UHB maintained their early advantage because Bernadette (Mudju) Ngoyisa was active at both ends of the court (11-7).

Calais drew briefly level (11-11) through Olayinka Sanni and again at (13-13) through Neaves.

A trey by Chioma Nnamaka and a split pair by Laëtitia Kamba appeard to have put UHB in control. But a second trey by Pagnier left the teams level (17-17) at the interval.

The first 4 ½ minutes of the second period was typical of the derby matches in the north with the lead changing on three occasions and bodies flying all over the place. UHB led thanks to Clémence Beikes (25-24).

Pagnier connected from the land of many to put Calais back into the lead for good (27-25) after 16 minutes of play. Calais completed a 14-2 run to open the first significant advantage of the game (38-27).

Tiffany Stansbury tried her best to bring UHB back into the game. Yet a couple of baskets from Leemans took Calais into the break (42-32) with a 10-point advantage.

Calais' dominance continued at the start of the third quarter as they went on a 10-2 run to go further ahead (52-36).

UHB were then in trouble and unable to get anything going despite matching their hosts basket for basket for the remaining of the period. Hence they went into the final period trailing (47-63).

Sabrina Reghassïa and Vedrana Grgin Fonseca started the UHB revolt in the final period as they chased after the score and reduced their deficit (63-73).

Cyril Sicsic, (left) the Calais head coach, called a time-out with four minutes to play which broke the rythm of their opponents.

After the time-out Calais were another team and went on an (11-0)run to end any hope of a UHB comeback.

With the game safe for Calais, Sicsis introduced Christelle Morel into the game. He was rewarded immediately with 2 points. She was to score again.

Solène Cosquer was also given a run and missed a chance of getting on to the scoresheet as she missed a pair of free-throws.

For UHB Kathy Wambe and Tiffany Stansbury fouled out as they fell (90-69). Ngoyisa finished with double-double of 16 points and 17 rebounds while Beikes scored 13 points.

Sanni was the other player from Calais in double digits with 11 points.

Aix-en-Provence fall to Villeneuve d'Ascq again

Géraldine Robert (left) scored 17 points, took 15 rebounds, made 5 steals and dished out 4 assists as Villeneuve came from behind to beat Aix-en-Provence on the road.

Hollie Grima did her best for Aix with 23 points and 14 rebounds.

The first change for Villeneuve was the return to the first team of Fatimatou Sacko. She was fit and well again and finished with 18 points.

Iziane Castro Marques (18 points) who was announced as medical cover for Sacko is still at the club and started the match against Aix.

Robert and Grima dominated the first quarter with 8 and 9 points each for their side to go ahead (19-14) into the second period.

Then Villeneuve drew level briefly (19-19) but the Australian connection of Grima and Ranae Camino (14 points) allowed the hosts to regain the advantage (28-23).

Laurence Van Malderen fired in a trey for Aix as they opened up the biggest lead of the game (33-25).

Jolene Anderson (10 points) kept Villeneuve in touch with a trey and a 2-point jumper as they closed in on their opponents at half time (34-37).

After the break Villeneuve stepped up the pace with the first 6 points of the quarter.

Both sides went on the offensive with the lead changing hands a few times with Villeneuve regaining the advantage (57-52) going into the last quarter.

A trey by K. B. Sharp and a jumper by Van Malderen (12 points) brought the teams level for the final time with 33 minutes played.

Castro Marques and Robert scored for Villeneuve as the pendulum finally swung in their favour (61-57).

Aix had no intention of allowing this game to escape them. They came to 2 points of Villeneuve (65-67) with just over three minutes to play.

Villeneuve did the rest of their scoring from the free-throw line to win (74-68).

A poor second quarter may have cost Nantes-Rezé the match

1200 people turned up for the occasion for the LFB match against Montpellier. It was also the first game of Faeza Boudera who is the medical cover for their captain Maria Vincente Santa Cruz.

After a closely fought quarter (14-10), Nantes-Rezé fell apart in the second period (10-30) .

Montpellier who were without Elodie Bertal and Khadijah Whittington then did enough to maintain their advantage to win (80-66).

Sheana Mosch and Pauline Krawczyk scored 22 points each for Montpellier.

Jessica Moore led the scoring for the hosts with 15 points. Leslie Ardon scored 13 points and dished out 8 assists.

Tarbes did not wait until the final quarter

For once the Tarbes supporters saw their club securing a win at the end of the third quarter and not in the last two minutes to beat Reims (72-49).

Tarbes with two EuroCup games played this week struggled to impose their game. They went into the interval with a slender advantage (33-32).

The home side eventually found their feet in the third period.

They alternated between working on the inside and shooting from the perimeter to establish the first significant lead of the match (55-40) going into the final period.

Reims were unable to penetrate the Tarbes defense and found it difficult to score. As a result Tarbes were able to pace themselves through the final period to win comfortably (72-49).

Isabelle Yacoubou-Dehoui led the scoring with 19 points.

The guards Tanisha Wright and Frida Eldebrink socred 17 and 15 points each with the latter scoring 4-from-6 from behind the arc.

Maria-Laure Kindoki-Fleury was the only player from Reims in double digits with 15 points.

Mondeville held off Clermont-Ferrand

There was no repeat of the LFB Open for Clermont-Ferrand as they fell at home (74-77) to Mondeville.

Mondeville got off to a flying start despite the best efforts of Claudia Das Neves from Clermont-Ferrand.

The guests dominated the first quarter to lead (26-19).

The scoring rate dropped during the second period. However Mondeville stretched their advantage (47-34).

Furthermore they found a solution to reduce the effectiveness of Emma Randall and Elena Nikipolskaia. Hence they stretched their lead (55-34) after 23 minutes of play.

Das Neves and Claire Tomaszewski (12 points) finally found a way to break the Mondeville defense and reduced their deficit (51-62) going into the final period.

Lenae Williams (10 points), who played the match with an injury, and Jennifer Digbeu did their best to hold the fort. Yet Mondeville managed to hold the advantage (75-62) with 37 minutes played.

Back to back treys from Das Neves (68-75) got the home fans on their feet as the game had entered money-time.

Clermont-Ferrand's chances of saving the game appeared to have gone when Nikipolskaia (left) was called for her fifth foul with just over a minute to play on a foul against Pauline Jannault.

Jannault scored the free throws which was enough to see Mondeville through despite Clermont-Ferrand scoring the last 6 points.

Digbeu led the scoring for Mondeville with 25 points. Paoline Salagnac finished with a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds while Rankica Sarenac scored 14 points

Das Neves fired in 28 points for Clermont-Ferrand which included 5-of-8 from behind the arc.

Challes-les-Eaux make it six wins in the LFB

Challes-les-Eaux had to deal with the zone press by Arras for the full 40 minutes.

It took them 20 minutes to find a solution.

Arras, led by Bernie Mosby (19 points in the first half) won the first half of the game to lead (42-35) at the interval.Challes started to put things in place during the third period.

Carly Wilson (left) started to hit from beyond the arc the home side went ahead (58-53) going into the final period.

Arras gave the home fans a scare at the start of the last quarter with Leilani Mitchell and Jenna O'Hea scoring from behind the arc to regain the advantage (59-58).

But thanks to< b>Martina Luptakova-Gyurcsi Challes regained the lead for good a minute later. When Wilson fired in another three-pointer, Challes-les-Eaux were back in control (63-59).

Kirby Copeland then took over and Challes-les-Eaux' advantage increased (71-60). With Laina Badiane marking Mosby and restricting her to only 5 points during the second half Arras were not able to come back.

Challes went on to win (81-70) with Wilson leading the scoring with 19 points, which included 5-of-9 from the land of many.

The only sad LFB basketball news for Challes was the injury to Stéphanie Dubois.

It was also the last home game for Ivona Bogoje whose medical cover contract ends at the end of the month. The home supporters gave her a standing ovation for her contribution to the club's success this season.

Luptakova-Gyurcsi finished on 18 points and 12 rebounds. Copeland contributed 11 points and dished out 9 assists. Silvia Bedu-Janostinova also scored 11 points.

Mosby scored 24 points and also had 12 rebounds for Arras. Mitchell, Julie Barnes and O'Hea also finished in double digits with 14, 12 and 11 points each. Mia Fisher had 4 assists.

Basket Landes 46-50 Bourges Basket

COB Calais 90-69 Union Hainaut Basket

Aix-en-Provence 68-74 Villeneuve d'Ascq

Nantes Rezé 66-80 Lattes-Montpellier

Tarbes 72-49 SJS Reims

Clermont-Ferrand 74-77 USO Mondeville

Challes-les-Eaux 81-70 Asptt Arras