LFB: Bourges and USVO qualify for the final

Bourges were made to work hard last night as they overcome Villeneuve to maintain their 100% home record. Villeneuve started the game aggressively and opened up a 13-point lead by the end of the first period. Bourges are the masters of defence and have the best collective team in the league, they have a habit of exploiting other teams difficulty with ease. Villeneuve had key players in foul problem and Pierre Vicent called Sonja Kireta into action and she responded with 11 second quarter points as the home side came back into the match and only trailed by 5-points at the interval.

After the break, the guests went for broke as they tried to break down the defence but as they began to tire, they left holes in their own defence which was exploited by Bourges and by the time Florence Lepron hit the period end 3-point buzzer shot to bring it down to a 1-point game, it was clear that Bourges was not going to allow an upset.

The final period was very tactical with Abdou N'diaye changing systems at every play as his team attempted to hold on to the lead and with his side holding a slender lead (52:55) going into the last two minutes that they may just do it.

Bourges are fighter and came back with some big plays, first up Florence Lepron mid distance jumper, and then some very clever play by Cathy Melain to put them in front (56:55). Fatima Sacko then put Villeneuve back in front (56:57). With only 28 seconds remaining, Villeneuve still had time to win the tie but failed to foul an opponent for 20 seconds, Evanthia Maltsi converted her free throws and the chance of an upset was gone. Bourges went on to score again and win the match (59-57).

Bourges will meet USVO in the best of three final with the first leg at Bourges on the 16th May.


USVO played their second leg on Tuesday evening and held on to win the match by only 2-points. After a tight first half with USVO leading (34-32), Mondeville went on the offensive
and hit USVO (15-2) within 5 minutes with an excellent display of 3-point shooting. Laurent Buffard was not amused and called a time out and gave his players a serious talking too. What ever he said worked as USVO went to work and only trailed by 3-points going into the final period. In the final period Sandra Gruda stepped up and USVO regained the lead and held on to win the match (62-60)