17.09.2005

Diaw, Mickael Pietrus Fire France To Win

It took France 66 minutes to arrive at EuroBasket 2005 but when they did, there was no stopping them as they sailed past Bosnia-Herzegovina in the second half for a 79-62 win.

Needing to make amends for their woeful appearance against Greece on Friday, the French hangover carried over into the first half against a Bosnia-Herzegovina side which had also threatened to upset Slovenia before losing that contest.

The Balkan team was on top of their game against France until the mid-point of the third quarter. That is when they caved in under enormous defensive pressure from France and went on to suffer their 11th straight defeat in the EuroBasket competitions.

French coach Claude Bergeaud said: "It was a tough game. I don't know why it started so bad, but after half-time we recovered our intensity on defence.

"Bosnia can be a dangerous team, and they showed that during some parts of the game. Now we wait for the game tomorrow. I think we can improve every game and I hope we will improve."

Bosnia-Herzegovina will try to break the streak on Sunday against Group C juggernauts Greece while France take on Slovenia.

		Tony Parker struggled against Bosnia-Herzegovina

Not surprisingly, two of France's NBA stars led the way to victory.

What was surprising, however, is that one of those Frenchman was not Tony Parker.

Instead, Boris Diaw poured in 23 points, dished out seven assists and grabbed seven rebounds while Mickael Pietrus had 22 points and seven boards.

"We came back from the half-time break more aggressive and played better on both ends," said Diaw. "That's why we won the game.

France struggled with their shooting in the first half when they made only 11 of 31 from the field (35%) and six out of 13 (46%) from the free throw line.

After Mujo Tuljakovic scored his first points in EuroBasket 2005 to give Bosnia-Herzegovina a 47-43 advantage 6:20 into the second half, the French woke up.

And it was Diaw time as the French forward scored eight consecutive points to spark a 17-2 run for his team.

During that stretch, Bosnia-Herzegovina lost Jasmin Hukic and Kenan Bajramovic to fouls, players they can ill afford to be without. That was the end of the road for them.

France have yet to get the best out of NBA champion Parker, the San Antonio Spurs point guard. Diaw and Pietrus shone, but what got them victory was their ability to play aggressive defence and put the result beyond doubt.

As opposed to the 22 turnovers against Greece, France committed only nine on Saturday - four by Parker who was a mere one of 10 from the field and finished with two points.

"There's no need to explain the differences between the two teams," said losing coach Mensur Bajramovic. "France is the better team. We sincerely hoped we could surprise them and win this game."

Mrsic became a factor with 3:20 to play in the first quarter.

France were leading 12-10 at that point, when Bosnia-Herzegovina went on a 12-4 run, led by Mrsic, who scored half of the points for the team in the opening quarter, including an off balance buzzer-beating three-pointer to make it 22-16 after 10 minutes.

Mrsic continued to show no mercy, and by the 15th minute had already contributed 16 points.

His shot from behind the arc gave his team a 29-21 lead.

Pietrus led a 6-0 spurt for France with four points, but Hukic hit his second three-pointer of the game to set the half-time score at 36-31 for Bosnia-Herzegovina but then could not fend off the French in the third quarter and slipped to another defeat.

Cyril Julian continued his good form with 11 points and six rebounds for France.

Mrsic had eight rebounds but 0 assists to go along with his game-high 24 points, while Henry Domercant contributed 13 points one six of 16 shooting from the field.

"We gave our best but we couldn't win," Mrsic said. "We watched the game of France yesterday and saw we what we would try to take advantage of, and tried to do that today, but as as you saw we did our best and France won the game. Tomorrow we'll try to do the best and surprise the Greek team."

"We had a great first half, and the important thing is that we did the things we agreed on before the game," Bajramovic said.

"The second reason why we were so good in the first half is because of Mrsic who made several great crazy shots. I demanded from my players to change the defence more often so we could confuse the opponent.

"We couldn't do that without defence, and the French team started to play very aggressively. When our players fouled out, we couldn't deal with that.

"We also tried to be as aggressive as the French team but we couldn't match them. In some moments they also played dirty. I would like to congratulate my team for fighting very well in this game, and we didn't have enough concentration in the second part of the match.

"We won't change anything for tomorrow. We'll try to give our best again. Greece is in top form, they seem unbeatable, but we'll try to do it."

17.09.2005

Bosnia Look For First EuroBasket Win Against France

After losing their 10th EuroBasket game in a row on Friday, Bosnia-Herzegovina will step on the court to face France one day later hoping to bring an end to that streak.

With Greece looking in top form after their destruction of France on Friday, Bosnia-Herzegovina will be targeting the French as their must-win game of the group.

Coach Mensur Bajramovic knows his team must give everything it has in order to celebrate a first win at EuroBasket 2005. "I think we have better chances against France than Greece. The French team is a very athletic, strong and fast but not experienced enough in this competition".

Bosnia-Herzegovina put up a great fight against Slovenia on Friday, before finally succumbing  74-65. One thing the Bosnian team will have to improve is offensive rebounding, after collecting only 3 during Friday's game.

Jasmin Hukic is one of the main points producers on the Bosnian side, but yesterday he connected on only 1 shot out of 8 attempts from the field, and Bosnia-Herzegovina will need Hukic to step up tonight.

Center Elvir Ovcina had a good start with a strong showing in the paint and tallied a total of 11 points and 8 rebounds against Slovenia's NBA centers - Nesterovic and Brezec.

France spent the night hoping to recover in time from the big loss to Greece. With an NBA champion, Tony Parker, and two other NBA players on the roster, Mickael Pietrus and Boris Diaw, France can not allow another game where they score just 14 points in the first half and 50 for the game.

France struggled mostly from behind the three point line, making only 1/12 shots, and finished the game with 22 turnovers. They will be hoping to improve those numbers against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

After suffering such a big shock against Greece, it's time for the veterans to step up and lead the way. Captain Antoine Rigaudeau knows what tonight's game is all about: "We must forget the game against Greece and focus on Bosnia-Herzegovina. We must react. It's a do or die situation for us".

Cyril Julian, who had a decent game last night compared to his teammates (6 points and 4 rebounds in 18 minutes), is another veteran that will have a major role in extricating his team from a difficult situation. "We can't make any mistake against Bosnia-Herzegovina. Tonight we will have a meeting and talk about the game and regain motivation for tomorrow", he said after the loss to Greece.

The French media have already questioned the desire of the French players to give all their all on the court against Greece. Against Bosnia-Herzegovina, a side known for its fighting spirit, another passionless French performance could spell distaster for Les Bleus. 

A plus for the French team is that they will have history on their side. The two teams have met only twice so far, and France had the upper hand in both games, including a 98-76 win in the preliminary round of EuroBasket 2005.