Sabrine Bouzzenna from Villeneuve d'Ascq celebrated her 18th birthday while Djéné Diawara from Charleville-Mézières started her first game of the season after AfroBasket Women.

Due to the wave made by Ligue Féminine de Basketball last weekend after Amel Bouderra's quarter ending buzzer beaters she was the centre of attraction before the game started.

The match got off to an electrifying offensive start with Villeneuve hitting their first 8 shots to lead (18-10) with just over five minutes played.

Villeneuve only missed two shots during the first quarter while opening up a 15-point lead (30-15).

Kathy Wambe (in picture below) with 4 assists and 9 points and Emilie Gomis on 8 points were leading the hosts.

Charleville also made over 50 % of their shots in the first quarter, led by Valeriya Berezhynska with 6 points.

Villeneuve were unable to maintain the same intensity during the second quarter while in addition Olayinka Sanni found herself in foul problems.

Berezhynska joined by Djéné Diawara started to make their presence felt in the paint as Charleville-Mézières reduced their deficit (29-35) with four minutes remaining in the first half.

However Villeneuve, led by an inspired Sabrina Palie, regained the double digit advantage going into the locker room (44-32).

In the last second of the quarter Amel Bouderra had the ball but decided to pass it inside to Diawara, who was then blocked on the buzzer by Catherine Kraayeveld.

Charleville chased and chased all through the third quarter. However they were not able to reduce the deficit into single digits and went into the final quarter (51-61) trailing by 10 points.

The last quarter was typical of basketball in the Ligue Féminine de Basketball with a late run by the challengers: physical, messy but exciting.

Gomis (left), Wambe and Kraayeveld came up with individual exploits for the hosts while Sanni was managing her fouls. For Charleville Bouderra was organising her team's fightback.

With four minutes to play Villeneuve's advantage had evaporated (66-64). However a trey from the top of the arc by Kraayeveld quickly followed by 2 points by Gomis put the hosts back in the driving seat.

Anne Breitreiner's free throws with a minute to play appeared to have secured the victory for the hosts (73-64). Yet back to back treys by Zoi Dimitrakou and Anne-Sophie Pagnier set up a nail biting finish with 10 seconds to play.

Charleville-Mézières needed to foul Gomis to stop the game clock. Gomis did not miss her free throws and Charleville did not really have any time to come up with a five-point play to send the game into overtime.