Basketball: France beats Great Britain in warm-up and continues its rise ahead of the Euro

The Olympic runners-up will begin their tournament with a group match against Belgium in Katowice on August 28.

In the midst of preparations for the Euro (August 27-September 14), the French basketball team won its second friendly match against Great Britain (74-67) on Friday, August 8, after faltering in shooting in the first half. In Pau, four days after their first victorious but painful outing against Montenegro (81-75), the run-in continued for Frédéric Fauthoux's Blues.

In the dampness of the room, his team took time to get into the rhythm with a lack of shooting skills (2/11 from three-point range and 7/13 from free throws at the break). The British, also involved in the Euro, took advantage of this to lead for nearly a quarter of an hour. It took individual sequences from Bilal Coulibaly (8 points), a good passage from Alexandre Sarr (6 pts) - unfortunate however from long range - and from Zaccharie Risacher (12 pts) at the end of the first quarter to see France come back.

"The goal is to get the temperature up. Even if it's pretty positive, there are still a lot of things to sort out," he said to L'Equipe at the end of the match. More concentration and aggressiveness in defense woke up the Béarn crowd and gradually extinguished the visitors, who had been carried until then by their duo Akawsi Yeboah (11 pts) and Luke Nelson (6 pts).

Aided by a strong performance from Guerschon Yabusele, the Blues rolled out in the third quarter with strong rebounding dominance thanks to Mouhammadou Jaiteh (12 points from his 2.08 m), effective with his back to the circle. The Olympic vice-champions will continue their preparation with a double confrontation against Spain (August 14 and 16), before a final rehearsal against Greece in Athens (August 24) to arrive fully ready for the Euro. They will play the group stage in Katowice, Poland, before reaching the Latvian capital, Riga, if they qualify for the final phase.