Leading throughout the match, the Sharks completely falter in the last quarter and lose 75-71 in overtime on the court of Paris-Levallois. A reaction is expected on Tuesday evening as they host ASVEL.
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen Julien Espinosa, coach of the Antibes Sharks, so angry. After the buzzer, a heated discussion took place at the center of the court with the match referees. The reason? A questionable foul by Bernard King with 2 seconds left gave 3 free throws to the home team to equalize and force overtime. Moving on, Antibes lost a game they had control over for most of the match. On Saturday, in the legendary Marcel Cerdan arena, it was Moustapha Fall and his teammates who lost the match rather than Paris-Levallois winning it.
A well-managed first half
Despite missing the first 6 shots, Antibes was not left behind in terms of scoring. Moustapha Fall and his 2m18 height significantly troubled the Parisians. Twice, he scored and drew a foul (5-5, 5th minute). With Tim Blue closely marked, offensive options were directed towards the control tower, Fall, who scored 5 points and grabbed 3 rebounds by the end of the 1st quarter. Will Solomon made his only basket of the match at the very end of the quarter, but at the buzzer, PL took the lead (14-12). Antibes had already lost 6 possessions and their shooting ratio was only 5/13.
Much more incisive in the 2nd quarter, the Antibes team took a lead thanks to Akil Mitchell, Tim Blue, and Boris Dallo, who made 4/4 shots (20-14, 12th minute). But since basketball is a game of runs, Paris-Levallois scored 7 unanswered points and took back the lead, prompting Espinosa to call a time-out, which proved beneficial. In fact, Antibes went on a 10-0 run to lead 30-21, driven by Paul Carter and King excelling from long range. And when things weren’t going well outside, Fall cleaned up inside the paint. At halftime, the Sharks led 32-27 with Moustapha Fall close to a double-double (9 points and 9 rebounds).
After the 37th minute… the blackout
As often happens, after returning from the locker room, the machine struggled to restart, and Antibes conceded a 4-0 run. It took all of Blue’s dexterity and Frédéric Bourdillon’s flair to get the Azuréens back on track (42-36, 26th minute). In front of his family, the young Sharks point guard was on fire and gave his team a seven-point lead (47-40, 27th minute). On defense, Carter and Mitchell did their job, and Antibes had a small but comfortable lead heading into the final ten minutes (52-44).
The crowd played its role as the 6th man, and PL sensed some fragility on the Sharks’ side. Julien Espinosa’s men didn’t score for over 2 minutes, allowing Anthony Roberson and the Parisians to equalize (52-52, 32nd minute). Solomon, not having his best day (finishing with 3 points on 1/12 shooting), allowed Bourdillon to shine. In rapid succession, he scored two difficult long-range baskets, giving Antibes a 6-point lead (62-56, 35th minute). With two minutes remaining, the Sharks were still leading (67-64), but a turnover under the basket brought PL back into the game (67-66). The controversial play occurred 2 seconds before the buzzer. King fouled Jones as he was shooting a 3-pointer. The small guard didn’t flinch and sent Paris-Levallois into overtime.
Five additional minutes swung in favor of the home team. Poirier gave his team a two-point edge while Antibes failed to score for nearly two minutes. Carter tied it at 71-71, but the Azuréens struggled with poor shooting accuracy. Turnovers sealed the visitors’ fate, who left frustrated.
Reaction from Julien Espinosa, coach of the Antibes Sharks:
“I prefer not to talk about the refereeing… When I explained that there was no foul (on the play that resulted in the 3 free throws to equalize), I was perceived as being aggressive. What I can say is that we did everything not to foul, we raised our arms high as instructed. Paris defended with energy in the second half. They managed to disrupt our system. We need to be good for 40 minutes; we were for 39:40. It’s our fault, we lost 20 possessions, made bad decisions, stepped out of our systems and structure.”
