In the final in two days, Olivier Lafargue's players will face the Italians of Venice, who fell from the Turks of Mersin 85 to 80 on Tuesday at the end of the afternoon.

Galatasaray and Mersin will battle it out for third place on Thursday (5:00 p.m.).

In the semi-finals on Tuesday, the Berruyères never gave up, carried by the Prado supporters, even when the gap rose to thirteen points in favor of the Istanbul club (62-49), while they only eight minutes left to play.

“It is in these moments that either we crack, or we do not crack”, underlined Olivier Lafargue in a press conference.

At this time, while the American Kelsey Plum (2018 world champion and 3x3 Olympic champion in Tokyo in 2021) seemed to have found her rhythm (21 points), the French internationals Sarah Michel, Iliana Rupert and Alix Duchet (19 points) sounded the revolt, to return to three points (63-60) three minutes from the buzzer on an award-winning shot from Rupert, essential for the rebound (eight).

Decisive Duchet

"The last five or six minutes, instead of thinking about the shots we weren't putting in, we kept thinking about putting the energy we had and taking the risks," rejoiced Lafargue.

"In two or three actions, we recover the ball, we shoot and Alix carries us on his shoulders when we needed it."

In an unbreathable end to the match, Alix Duchet scored a three-point shot to put his team in front of the score (67-65), and Sarah Michel secured the victory on the counter-attack (69-67) three seconds behind. the end, as Plum had the winning ball for Galatasaray on the previous possession.

"We never lost confidence in what we were doing. Even if we had less good times, we never stopped," explained the Bourges coach.

"Even though we didn't have great shooting percentages, we continued to stay focused and take those shots," he added.

For a sixth European trophy after the C1 (Euroleague) in 1997, 1998 and 2001, the C2 in 1995 (Coupe Ronchetti at the time) and in 2016 (Eurocoupe), Bourges will once again be able to count on the support of the 5,000 spectators of the Prado.

© 2022 AFP