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06 September 2005 France completed day 4 of action in Bursa at EuroBasket Women with a convincing win against additional qualifiers Poland. The French seem to have fully recovered from their demoralising 46-65 loss to Czech Republic on the first day of the competition and had little trouble shrugging off Poland.
Poland were the better side for most of the opening period and led 8-2 after a fast start which saw them nail their first three shots, including two 3-pointers. But France remained calm and slowly clawed their way back into contention. Just 5 minutes later Sandra LeDrean tied the scores with a lay-up which sparked a 7-2 France run to close the quarter. National team rookie Emmanuelle Hermouet then opened the second quarter with 5 consecutive points and France were up ten, 30-20. Coming into the game France had experienced problems shooting the basketball. They were averaging just 38% from the field in their opening 3 games and their offense had not really clicked. However, against Poland the French found the rhythm they had been looking for, shooting 53% from the field and dishing 25 assists, and it allowed them to maintain a comfortable lead for the remainder of the contest. Nonetheless, a continuing concern for coach Alain Jardel is free throw shooting. His side made only 7/15 free throws and so far are the worst free throw shooting side in the competition at 53.8%. Sandra Le Dréan finished with a team high 20 points for France while Audrey Sauret had 11 and 8 assists. Celine Dumerc and Cathy Melain also dished 6 assists apiece. France face Germany in their remaining Group A encounter and will expect nothing less than a comfortable win. Poland face Greece in what is a straight up elimination contest with the winner advancing to the quarter-finals. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||