Luca Bianchi (Strasbourg): “This format costs a lot of energy”
Marcus Keene, point guard Strasbourg, winner in the quarter-finals of the Coupe de France in Bourg-en-Bresse (88-71) : “We have played well, since our match against Asvel (loss 72-78) we play harder in defense and it’s going well at the moment (4 rank wins). We have to keep playing our game. We wanted to come here (in Trélazé) to win two matches. We now have to rest to come back on Sunday and play just as hard.
Luca Bianchi, Strasbourg coach “I’m happy with the win. It’s a match where we led 39 minutes out of 40, despite big mistakes, with in the first half the lost balls and in the second half missing easy baskets, the percentage of success inside, throws, dunks… It cost us energy.
(On the many faults committed) It’s not easy, you have to find solutions to make it run as needed. Not having a substitute in the lead costs quality especially when you play so frequently. We arrive from Israel at 4am in Angers, this format (quarters and halves in two days) costs everyone a lot of energy. This (SATURDAY) evening we managed, I don’t know for tomorrow (Sunday), we have to start again, recover, regardless of the opponent, it will still be a big effort. »
Freddy Fauthoux, coach of Bourg-en-Bresse “We haven’t been in exceptional shape since the break, we’re struggling to regain our physical and mental freshness to play high-level matches. We have to play better than that. We had scrutinized the match against Asvel (where Strasbourg had committed 39 faults), we found the same thing. How to attack this? On all actions there is fault, we do not have a bodybuilder or dangerous player to play that. It gives what we saw on this match, without knowing what is allowed or not allowed. We could have had even more free throws. There was a time when these kinds of matches didn’t end, but I don’t have the players for that. If we have to put on a fight, we don’t have the players for that.
Maxime Courby, captain of Bourg-en-Bresse : “They are in a confidence that we do not have at the moment, they made us thwart on phases of play which do not correspond to us. We have big individuals, but when we don’t find the right passes we become an ordinary team. We have to move on, we have important deadlines. The Cup was a bonus for us, not a main objective. We need to quickly turn the page. »
