Bourges Basket back to business at home

Bourges Basket got quickly into their stride and led (9-2) early on in the first period and maintained their 7-point lead until the end of the first period (14-7).

Pierre Vincent started early to rotate his bench.

Ana Cata-Chitiga (right) made her presence felt with Bourges starting to pick holes in the Calais defense.

Ana Lelas and Carine Paul contributed to the Bourges attack as they opened up a 10-point lead (36-22).

However Bourges were not able to advance because Lina Brazdeïkyte and Olayinka Sanni were able to score some points for Calais. All the same Bourges Basket went into the locker room ahead (31-22).

Céline Dumerc appeared to be in a hurry to bring the game to an end as she started to score from all over the court. Bourges went on a 15-3 run and more or less broke their opponents' resistance (46-25).

Calais did manage to score a few more points but the damage had been done and Bourges extended their lead by the end of the third period (55-31).

The rest of the game was a formality for Bourges as they paced themselves to victory (76-53). Katarina Manic was the only player from Bourges who did not play.

Dumerc and Lelas led the scoring with 14 points apiece while Cata-Chitiga contributed 12 for Bourges Basket.

Sanni and Lauren Neaves finished the game with 15 and 13 points for Cob Calais.

USO Mondeville went to work in the third period

Mondeville edged the first period against Montpellier (17-15) thanks to 2 late points from .

The cat and mouse game continued through the second period with the guests staying in front all the way to the break (35-29).

Montpellier started to play more aggressively at the start of the third period and finally gave their home supporters something to cheer about as they went in front (40-37).

Hervé Coudray called for a time-out and changed his team's approach. Montepellier failed to score for the remaining 4½ minutes of the third period while conceding 13 points.The 15-0 run by Mondeville finally came to an end (52-40) after 50 seconds of play in the fourth period with a three-pointer by Pauline Krawczyk.

Krawczyk went on to score 8 more points as she single-handedly brought Montpellier to within a single point of their guests (53-54).

Mondeville weathered the storm and scored 6 quick points, which enabled them to hold off Montpellier as they went on to win (68-59).

Mondeville only fired in 3-of-16 from beyond the arc compared to 8-of-24 from Montpellier, but with 17 assists their better organised team game won them through.

Paoline Salagnac (left) led the way with 15 points. She was joined in double digits by Rankica Sarenac also with 15 points and Costaz with 12. Ingrid Tanqueray dished out 5 assists.

For Montpellier Krawczyk finished with a game high 20 points. Sheana Mosch was the only other played in double digits with 10 points.

Clermont-Ferrand have lost Claire Tomaszewski, (known as Tom-Tom), for the rest of the season with ligament damage. They were also without Emma Randall for their first match back after the break.

With these two players missing it was the turn of Pauline Thizy to step up for Clermont-Ferrand. She scored 24 points and took 9 rebounds.

Thizy was only beaten by Claudia Das Neves who scored 28 points and dished out 8 assists.

However this was not enough to stop Reims winning the game (91-81). They had six players in double digits with Mame-Marie Sy-Diop leading the way with 19 points and 10 rebounds.

Clermont-Ferrand, playing at home, only held the lead briefly (3-2) at the start of the game but almost came back to steal the game at the end.

Their guests took control early in the game and led (26-18) after the first period.

The second period was evenly matched with neither side able to control the proceeding for long with Reims slightly increasing their advantage (46-37) at the interval.

The game became more physical during the third period. Only clutch three-point shooting from Amélie Pochet from Reims enabled them to stay on top as they went into the final quarter (67-57).

Phillipe Sauret was getting more and more agitated and as a result picked up a technical right at the start of the final period.

Das Neves hit the resulting free-throws and from then on Clermont-Ferrand went on the offensive. With the game in money time they trailed (79-80).

Orsolya Englert (right) who had scored 5 points and dished 5 assists until the point of the game came to the rescue of Reims.

She hit three three-pointers and also scored 2 free-throws for her side's last 11 points of the game.

Aix-en-Provence accelerated in the final quarter

Aix-en-Provence had to wait until the second part of the fourth quarter to put away Challes-les-Eaux.

Aix finished the game with an 14-0 which included a three-point-buzzer beater by K. B. Sharp to win on the road (71-50).

Yene Séné (left) led the Aix attack with 20 points. She was joined in double digits by the captain Magali Lacroix, and Sharp with 15 and 13 points apiece.

Hollie Grima did not have a good shooting day with 7 points but finished with 11 rebounds.

Challes-les-Eaux playing at home got off to a flying start with a three-pointer by Carly Wilson (her only points of the game) and had a maximum lead of 7 points early in the first period (12-5).

Aix-en-Provence started to find their mark. With Sharp, Séné, Grima and Laurence Van Malden hitting the target they trailed by just a single point at the end of the first period (15-16).

The guests went ahead briefly at the start of the second period through Van Malden.

The lead was to change hands several times during the rest of the period and the teams went into the locker room level (29-29).

After the break, Aix took the lead (40-32) and were halted in their progress by a time-out by Challes.

The hosts went to zone that destabilised their opponents for a while as they reduced the deficit to a single point (39-40).

However Aix managed to counter Challes’ attempt and went into the final period with an 8-point lead after Séné connected from beyond the arc (48-40).

Thereafter the game became rather scrappy and physical.

Challes with Martina Gyurcsi-Luptanova and Silvia Janostinova-Bedu using all their experience tried to find a way in reducing their deficit.

All their efforts were in vain as Aix always found a solution to counter.

Laina Badiane scored Challes-les-Eaux’ last point of the game to bring the home side to within 7 points of their guests (50-57).

While the guests finished with a flourish of points, Corinne Benintendi picked up a technical foul.

Janostinova-Bedu and Badiane were the only players from Challes in double digits with 13 and 12 points each.

Tarbes won the derby match against Basket Landes

Tarbes remain on top of the LFB after holding off the challenge of Basket Landes (70-57).

Isabelle Yacoubou-Dehoui with 20 points and 11 rebounds was once again the driving force for Tarbes as her side only managed to put down the hosts in the final quarter.

Basket Landes got off to an energetic start and led (9-5). Tarbes had no option but to play at the same pace of their hosts and ended up wining the first period (23-20).

The pace dropped slightly in the second period as the teams practically traded basket for basket all through the quarter. Despite Basket winning the second period they trailed at the break (35-37).

The third period (10-10) was a low key affair with defense being the order of the day.

Basket Landes' head coach, Olivier Lafargue (right) has not be lucky this season on close decisions with officials during critical phases in the game this season.

He should be disappointed with the way this game went after a technical was called against him.

This incident was the turning point of the match, Tarbes were leading (56-52) at the time. Yacoubou-Dehoui added 2 more points to the tally.

Tanasha Wright converted the free-throws from the technical, which was the start of a 10-point run. This included 4 more points by Wright (66-52). At this point the game was over as a contest.

Frida Eldebrink (left) had a solid game for Tarbes with 16 points including 3-of-4 from behind the arc.

Liz Moeggenberg who led the attack in the first half with 11 points finished with 14 points while Wright hit 13 points.

For Basket Landes Ana Perovic scored 17 points while Bineta Diouf and Marion Laborde scored 11 points each.

Jenifer Humphrey on her debut scored 6 points and finished with 11 rebounds.

Villeneuve d'Ascq 66-59 Asptt Arras

Bourges Basket 66-59 COB Calais

Clermont-Ferrand 81-91 SJS Reims

Lattes Montpellier 59-68 USO Mondeville

Nantes Reze 95-85 Union Hainaut Basket

Basket Landes 57-70 Tarbes

Challes-les-Eaux 50-71 Aix-en-Provence