Cholet! French Edge Triumph In Final Four Thriller

Cholet clinched a thrilling win over BC Triumph on Friday night in Bologna to advance to the final of the EuroChallenge.

Claude Marquis had 20 points, Kevin Braswell 19 and Vincent Grier 16 as the French outfit prevailed 81-78.

Cholet now await the winner of the clash between Final Four hosts Virtus BolognaFiere of Italy and Cypriot giants Proteas EKA AEL.

The game wasn't decided until the final minute.

Triumph's Fedor Dmitriev connected from three-point land with 1:06 remaining to knot the contest at 74-74.

Cholet went to the other end and Marquis, with his back to the basket, passed to a cutting Grier who was fouled by Dmitriev.

Grier hung in the air, remained composed and banked in the shot on the play despite the contact for the go-ahead basket.

He missed the free throw, but Rodrigue Beaubois chased down the rebound to keep possession in the hands of Cholet.

After Beaubois missed with a jumper, Triumph had their chance to tie the game or go in front.

Guard Ernest Bremer pushed the ball up the floor and drove into the lane but instead of shooting, he passed out to the perimeter.

No teammate was there to catch the pass and the ball went out of bounds with 18 seconds to go.

Cholet coach Erman Kunter inserted his excellent free-throw shooter Nando De Colo into the line-up and when play resumed, he caught the inbounds pass and was fouled.

De Colo, wearing a face mask after having his nose broken in the EuroChallenge Quarter-Final tie with BC Kyiv, sank both attempts with 17 seconds to go.

After a timeout, Triumph's Marque Perry drove into the lane and scored to cut the deficit to two, and the Russian team fouled Braswell on the ensuing inbounds play with nine seconds left.

Braswell made both for a four-point lead and Cholet held on for the victory.

Cholet almost paid the price for bad free-throw shooting after making just 11 of 19 (57.9%) for the game.

Bremer had 20 points in defeat for Triumph.

Cholet out-rebounded Triumph 37-32.

Triumph were nine of 27 (33.3%) from the arc compared to six of 20 (30%) for Cholet.

Ognjen Askrabic had 13 points, and Marcus Goree had seven points and six rebounds for Triumph.

Quotes Cholet Basket vs. BC Triumph

Stanislav Eremine, Lyubertsy Head Coach:

" The game was quite equal and in games like that luck usually chooses one side. Tonight it chose Cholet. But luck always chooses on a basis. We lost a couple of very important rebounds. Maybe the last few possessions of the game were also my mistake. Today we played much worse defence than we usually do. The key was that we could not stop Claude Marquis. Congratulations to Cholet and good luck in the final."

Marque Perry, Lyubertsy Player:

" Today it was a very hardgame between two very good teams. Just like coach said, at the end of the game it comes down toplaying hard defence and making tough shots. Cholet made shots, got rebounds and got defensive stops when they were supposed to and we didn't. It is a hurt felling but we came out and played hard and just lost."

Erman Kunter, Cholet Head Coach:

"At the end of the first half we really felt that we could win the game. In one periodLyubertsy shot the ball very well and we took some bad decisions on offence. But we knew that if we kept playing like we were practicing in the second half and defend a little better we could win this game. All my players give 100 %, regardless of their playing time. For me, thats the most important thing. It was already a great success for our team to be here and now we play the final on Sunday. The final should also be an open game, I think our chance is 50 %."

Rodrigue Beaubois, Cholet Player:

 "It is a pleasure to be here just in my first year. I personally started the match pretty bad with two quick fouls and after that it was kind f hard to get back into the game. But I am here to play for the team. Now that we are in the final we want to win it and we feel like we can win it. But we play and in the end we will see what we get."