Europe 1 with AFP 21:02 p.m., March 21, 2023

Can the basketball players of Bourges repeat their feat of the return match against Mersin. The Berruyères can win, this Wednesday, their ticket for the final four of the Euroleague on the occasion of a third decisive match against the Turkish players.

Saved by a huge performance in the return match against Mersin, the basketball players of Bourges won a beautiful in Turkey, where a victory on Wednesday (17:00) would give them a ticket to the Final Four of the Euroleague. Dominated in all compartments of the game in the first leg (84-56), the Berruyères delivered a reference match to overcome the Turkish armada and its players passed by the WNBA in their room of the Prado last Friday (76-75).

A victory of a small point that offers them the right to dream of a Final Four that flees the French clubs in the queen of European competitions since the 2013-2014 season and a qualification of... Bourges for the last square. The Tango has made it an assumed objective since the beginning of the season, and even wishes to organize the continental meeting in Bourges. "We have to impose an impact and a physical challenge to take this match and continue our adventure," said coach Olivier Lafargue.

>> READ ALSO – 40 years later, a mythical club of French basketball returns to the final of the Coupe de France for a shock

"Stay in the game"

"We know that there will be an even crazier atmosphere than in Game 1, we want to focus on what we can do, stay in the game as long as possible so that the pressure of the result falls on their shoulders," he added Tuesday at a press briefing. To get there, it will be necessary, as at the Prado, to contain the three American stars of the Turkish training: Tiffany Hayes, Elizabeth Williams and Chelsea Gray, Olympic champion in Tokyo. The trio scored 54 of Mersin's 75 points in the second leg, without really being able to rely on the long-distance home shooters, Laura Cornelius (11 points in the first leg) and Aleksandra Crvendakic (15 pts), well cut off from the rest of the team at the Prado.

"In Game 2, we didn't leave shots too open to their shooters, so the big stars were forced to do everything themselves," said Lafargue. The Tangos have also managed to combine this defensive impermeability with beautiful offensive inspirations, carried by the artificers Yvonne Anderson (13 pts) or Alix Duchet (16 pts), and an unprecedented skill this season behind the arc (7/10).

Leaving Sunday evening from Bourges, the Berruyères arrived, after stages in Paris and Istanbul, Tuesday at midday on the shores of the Mediterranean "to make good nights" and prepare this decisive meeting in the best conditions. Essential to hope to beat a team that has not lost at home in the Euroleague since the second day against the Hungarians of Sopron, while none of the three major players was on the match sheet.