Bourges End Schio's Aspirations

Endene Miyem made 15 crucial points in Bourges' Day 3 victory

Turning Point: With less than 30 seconds remaining, Famila Schio trailed by two points and had the ball after Danielle McCray had taken a steal. But, she was called for an offensive foul down the other end of the court and that turnover ended the chances of the Italian side.

Game Heroes: Marissa Coleman had 19 points and six rebounds, whilst Johannah Leedham posted her best game of the week with a handy 10 points and nine rebounds.

Stats Don't Lie: Elodie Godin, Raffaella Masciadri and Laura Macchi are all experienced and established players for Schio, but they were two-for-16 from the field in the game.

Resurgent Bourges Basket recorded consecutive victories at the EuroLeague Women Final Eight by edging out Famila Schio 60-56, leaving an anxious wait to see if they will qualify for the semi-finals.

Even with their fate still to be decided by Fenerbahce and Sparta&K M.R. Vidnoje, head coach Valerie Garnier revealed her pleasure and pride at the way her players equipped themselves.

"My players were very, very tired, but I think that whatever happened, we could be satisfied with the win we already had," she insisted.

After two very good starts in their previous games, Bourges were much slower out of the blocks this time, going scoreless for almost six minutes and falling 6-0 in arrears.

A fast break score by Leedham eventually opened their account and kick-started an 11-4 run, as they nudged ahead moving into the second quarter.

With three minutes to go until half-time, there was a noticeable reduction in the tempo of the game and at that stage, it was Schio with the slender advantage at 23-22.

One of the highlights was the intriguing match-up between the red-hot Jantel Lavender and Emmeline Ndongue, although the pair cancelled each other out to some extent and it was the perimeter play which took over.

There were a flurry of downtown scores in the last 90 seconds before the interval, with Chiara Consolini converting from long-range, either side of triples from Leedham and Coleman which helped Bourges establish a 30-26 lead.

They continued to have the edge in the third quarter, increasing the gap to eight points after a string of nice post moves, but by the time the final quarter arrived, Schio had found another gear.

Giorgia Sottana handed them the lead at 52-50 with just under five minutes left on the game clock, but it was Bourges who got the job done in crunch time.

Ndongue then made the most of a missing defensive assignment to make it 58-54 and vitally, a two-shot game - something Schio couldn't recover from.