March 1, 2025
Dimitri VOITURIN
Le Mans maintains momentum after Leaders Cup: « The team is gaining maturity »
Betclic ELITE - Le Mans continues its impressive streak! After winning the Leaders Cup and qualifying for the French Cup semi-finals, MSB resumed the Betclic ELITE championship with a wide victory against Limoges (101-77). Led by a well-oiled collective and an in-form Abdoulaye Ndoye, the Sarthe team confirms their rise in power and gets closer to the Top 5.
Photo Credit : Julie Dumélié
After winning the Leaders Cup and qualifying for the French Cup semifinals, Le Mans Sarthe Basketball continued with a convincing victory in Betclic ELITE against Limoges (101-77). A successful performance that keeps Le Mans in contact with the Top 5.
A conquering and united MSB
Led by remarkable shooting and constant intensity, MSB quickly took control of the game. With 24 offensive rebounds and 23 assists, Guillaume Vizade’s team showed impressive collective determination.
« There were great shooting and fast-break sequences, » appreciates Guillaume Vizade. « There’s a willingness to share the ball and fight for rebounds. At certain moments of the game, it fluctuated. When there are two games close together, that’s the risk, but overall, we managed to find solutions and shooting with David (DiLeo) and Tray (Buchanan) for accuracy and Wilfried (Yeguete) for rebounds. The team has a certain maturity to correct one or two actions if necessary. We took this Limoges team very seriously. They have new momentum with their coaching change. They won their two home games including against ASVEL and were very competitive. For us, everyone gets playing time, which is interesting as it allows us to maintain intensity. This game also helped reintegrate TaShawn (Thomas) and Noah (Penda) to have good momentum next week. »
Abdoulaye Ndoye, man of the match
In this well-oiled collective, Abdoulaye Ndoye (1.98m, 26 years old) stood out with a noteworthy performance. In 26 minutes, he compiled 13 points (6/9 shooting), 4 rebounds, 7 assists and 1 block for a 20 evaluation, the highest on the Le Mans side.
« We took the start of the game very seriously, » he comments. « We knew Limoges has been doing very well since their new coach arrived. They have many shooters and even when we had the lead, we couldn’t let them gain confidence. We shared the ball, that’s most important. Confidence comes from practice work throughout the year. When you win a game, it gives more confidence and it’s also thanks to the staff’s work. We have a different game plan for each match and we apply it to the maximum. When we were leading by more than 20 points, humanly you can relax a bit, and defensively we need to think about our concentration because the upcoming away games will be important as we won’t have our crowd. We managed to stay united and move forward. It’s cool to get all players who participate in practice involved. For my part, I set the rhythm for my teammates and to keep them in the right tempo. »
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Limoges struggling
On their side, CSP never found the right rhythm and paid for their defensive lapses, regrets coach Mikko Larkas, who hopes to get back his interior Alexandre Chassang (2.05m, 30 years old) for the crucial match against Le Portel:
« We need to be better because we only played 10 minutes. We knew the game would be tough because they have good defense. We could see it in the French Cup and Leaders Cup. They showed their level. For us, everyone needs to look in the mirror, myself included. We left too many open shots. We conceded over 100 points, that’s disappointing. There have been changes, we need to continue working together, learning to progress. »
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Same observation from Limoges captain, Nicolas Lang:
« We were dominated everywhere, both in defense and offense. The team is very well organized and found their shooting rhythm very quickly. When we found solutions, they found someone to restart their momentum. In the first quarter, we had very good solutions but couldn’t find perspective. At this level, when you have the opportunity to score, you have to dunk. They found easy shots. Beyond missing one player, they understand each other with just a look. Even with a new coach, they started this year with veterans and an American (Hudgins) in his second year. We have too young a team and it’s not easy to play 3 or 4 different positions. We need to manage to change defensive strategies, intensity isn’t enough. There are instructions but there’s also an urgent situation. We don’t have habits yet. Yeguete is a true defensive leader that you don’t notice, I played with him, I know what he’s capable of. I’m not the greatest defender on earth. I have respect for people like Yeguete who anticipate situations and know how to read and save things. These guys are rare. »
MSB still pursuing Top 5
With this win, Le Mans remains 6th but gets closer to Bourg (5th) who lost against Nancy. A positive momentum that the Sarthe team will need to maintain in upcoming away games.
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