The French left no doubt about who's going to win this one right from the tipoff as they crushed FYROM with 83-57.
Ronny Turiaf made the first bucket of the game with Riste Stefanov answering with a three-pointer two minutes into the game. That was the only time FYROM led and that was about when the game ended as the French answered with a 15-0 run with back to back dunks and alley-oops to finally close the quarter being up by 15 (24-9).
Things got worse for FYROM in the second quarter where they were again outscored by about the same points (25-9) even though Vincent Collet put his second line-up on court, to make the score 49-18 for halftime.
FYROM never managed to attempt a comeback in the second half as they had already given up, France continued playing with their bench players, tough defenses relaxed and so the margin dropped to the final 26 points (83-57).
France 83-57 FYROM
France: Diot 2, Batum 13, Jeanneau 3, Koffi 3, Mahinmi, Parker 13, Bokolo 4, Pietrus 14, De Colo 14, Diaw, Turiaf 4, Traore 13
FYROM: V.Stefanov, Mirakovski 5, Sokolov 9, R.Stefanov 3, V.Stojanovski 2, Blazevski 3, Tasovski 2, Gecevski 9, Antic 8, D.Stojanovski, Massey 9, Samardziski 7
Game quotes:
Vincent Collet (France coach): "We started very strong. We wanted to put a lot of pressure on FYROM. We watched their other games and saw that if they could develop their game that they could shoot, including their big men. And we didn't want them to have their position. And that helped us early. And the game was over at half-time."
Nando De Colo: "We started the game well, just like the coach asked us too. We knew that we had to start well. Even though they were considered the weakest team in the group, there was no reason to let up."
Jovica Arsic (FYROM coach): "They played much better than my team. We didn't play defense like we should have. They scored almost 50 points (48 points) in our point. And that is unacceptable."
