Toulouse. That Valence not bad at the TOAC, that Valence not bad!
> The essential
“It is normal for the TOAC to win with all these good players,” exclaims a spectator from Gers at the end of the meeting. “There are good players, of course, but in addition they have good basketball,” he recalls Yves Baratet, the former coach of Valence, ASVEL and assistant in the France team, who came to attend the meeting. The collective victory of the “Dragon’s” does not raise any dispute. They form with Toulouges the undefeated duo at the top of the pool.
> The encounter
The Toulouse start to the match was perfect. Aggressive defense that provokes the clumsiness of the locals. Vaty stood out under the circle by Brice, also distributor of tournis (2-9, 4th). Assim and Uneau provide solutions (11-15, 9th) before in less than a minute Brice and Delis Mayeta allow the TOAC to exceed 10 points in advance for the first time (11-22, 10th).
The second period of visitors will be the most successful, both in terms of address and collectively and physically. Valence Condom cracked (17-40, 17th) but did not break (28-45 at the break).
When they returned from the locker room, the locals used all the ingredients, but not the injured Popotte, which they had in hand. Aggressive high defense, two-handed, fast play, delay screens to try to compete on rebounds, clearance from Pétris, arrived from Paris Basket to go green (that of the Valencia jerseys), which will finish as the best scorer in the match.
Valence thus removes the last two quarters but the TOAC, dominant in the circles as evidenced by several cons of Fédensieu, Gomis and Vaty, easily resists the close proximity of the premises (64-71, 40th) to win quite logically in the wake of a precious Couret who, at 3 points, had stopped a first close to the Gersois (41-53, 41-56, 28th).