After an unbreathable final match, the captain of Les Bleues Sandrine Gruda offered her second title of champion of France to Lyon-Asvel, at the expense of Villeneuve-d’Ascq (74-68) Monday in a support match, at the Astroball.
Finally, the consecration for Tony Parker’s club, which has been chasing a new national title since 2019. In the meantime, failures had multiplied, such as the Coupe de France final lost against Basket Landes last month or the Women’s League final won by Bourges l ‘last year.
The recruitment of Sandrine Gruda in the off-season was judicious. At almost 36 years old, next month, the Tokyo bronze medalist signed a double double (18 points 10 rebounds) on Monday. More than that, she tipped the meeting in the decisive moments.
“We have a lot of experienced players, they came to win and we did it,” greeted the owner “TP” at the microphone of Sport in France. “It was hard, you have no idea,” blew the huge interior (1.97 m) on his side. “It’s beautiful, I came for that, to win titles.”
His successful mid-range shots posed a threat of entering the racket of the ESBVA, which the Northerners tended to desert sometimes to harass the Lyon exteriors.
Indeed, between Julie Allemand and Marine Johannès (3/6 at three points and 3/8 on Monday), Asvel has two highnesses of the address, who left the floor with 11 and 16 points.
“I was from the beginning of the history of Asvel, it’s nice to go and win this title a second time, savored the Belgian Julie Allemand. We’ve been waiting for it for a few years. We knew it was going to take time to create our identity.”
Marine Johannès, whose participation in the next Eurobasket (June 15-25, 2023), remains uncertain due to a possible express round trip to the WNBA appeared very moved. “I’ll talk about that later,” she evaded. “There, I want to enjoy.”
The MVP of the season, the American Kennedy Burke, in position N.4, almost turned the match in favor of the Northerners by piling up ten points in the final quarter.
But, despite the absence on protocol concussion of Gabby Williams, one of the many French internationals of Asvel (Ciak, Chartereau, Johannès and therefore Gruda), this support match swung to the side of the regular season leader.
The advantage of the field, acquired thanks to this first place, was not too much in this match under high tension. Before the final break created by Sandrine Gruda (67-61) five and a half minutes from the buzzer, the gap had only exceeded four points by a handful of seconds.
