New home defeat (55-74) for Cavigal Nice Basket against a direct rival for survival, Angers Union Fรฉminine Basket. The French Riviera club holds the last place in the LFB rankings and must quickly react to avoid relegation to the second division.
More than just a game at stake, this match was a pivotal one in Cavigal’s season. Occupying the last place and facing Angers, the second-last, the Nicese Basket could have given themselves some breathing room and gained confidence for the upcoming weeks.
However, this particular match took place after the death of its president Henri Biancardini this week. This club enthusiast had worked for many years to bring Nice’s basketball to the highest level, never forgetting the training and education of the youth. Numerous tributes followed, long minutes of applause accompanied Nissa La Bella, and a moment of silence was observed before the match.
An emotionally charged pre-match that completely paralyzed the players of Nice, who started the game disastrously. In a few minutes, the Angevines took control and led 12-4. The match quickly became tense, but multiple turnovers and poor shooting allowed Angers to take a 15-point lead by the end of the first quarter (7-22).
A failed start to the game in which the Croatian, Iva Sliskovic, dominated the French Riviera camp with her 11 points in 10 minutes. The second quarter started like the first, with misses on both sides, maintaining the 15-point gap. Kristen-Brooke Sharp’s three-pointer midway through the quarter gave the Nicese a new boost.
Angers began to feel the pressure, their game became disorganized, and their coach David Girandiรจre was frustrated on his bench while Cavigal gradually climbed back. A strong second quarter that revived Rachid Meziane’s players, Sliskovic was on the bench, and the Angevines scored little. The comeback was on, with Nice closing the score gap to 7 points behind Angers at halftime (22-29).
The second half began well with another three-pointer from Sharp right away, signaling a possible comeback. But the return of the Croatian seemed to even out the matchup, with both teams trading blows. The solution might have come from the bench, which the Angers coach realized by bringing in the Dutch player Natalie Van Den Adel, who gave her team some breathing room with 7 points in a few minutes. Lizanne Murphy, the Canadian forward for Angers, maintained her excellent level, and Angers finished the third quarter strongly with a 17-point lead (32-49).
This third quarter was very similar to the first, with a dry spell where Angers scored the necessary points while Cavigal faltered. However, the players from Nice woke up at the beginning of the last quarter after a timeout called by Mรฉziane. The visitors seemed overwhelmed, and the French Riviera team took advantage by playing a more direct and efficient game (37-51).
But the timeout called by Girandiรจre interrupted Cavigal’s momentum, and re-motivated the Angevines, who then pulled away for good with a 20, then 23-point lead. A torturous end to the match for the Nicese. With the game already lost, the players relaxed, Galliou-Loko, Tchangouรฉ, and Sharp successfully attempted three-pointers. But that was, of course, not enough, with the final score being 55 to 74 in favor of Angers.
The trio of Sliskovic (23 points), Murphy (16 points), and Hejdova (14 points) made the difference for Angers. In Nice, only Kristen-Brooke Sharp exceeded ten points with 17 points and an impressive 5 out of 7 in three-pointers.
Cavigal remains at the bottom of the rankings, one point behind Arras and two points behind Toulouse, Mondeville, Tarbes, and thus Angers. With 3 victories in 17 matches, the club must wake up and start winning at all costs, as the second division beckons.
