Paris falls short by just one point

In a game where madness took over the adidas arena in the final quarter, Paris Basketball unfortunately fell at home to JDA Dijon (95-96). Now, all focus turns to our final game of the season this Saturday.

Cruel.
At the end of a match where our Parisians gave everything to come back, Tiago Splitter’s men were narrowly defeated by a determined Dijon team. In the first half, our players struggled to find their rhythm, and Dijon’s hot shooting from beyond the arc repeatedly halted our momentum. Then, to spark his teammates, Collin Malcolm rose up and posterized his defender, sending the adidas arena into a frenzy ! It was just what we needed to get going. From there, it was TJ’s turn to take control. Our point guard became the playmaker (14 points, 8 assists), helping to keep us in the game. At halftime, Paris was still in it, trailing by only 9 points (45-56).

After the break, Paris picked up the pace. Led by an energetic Yakuba Ouattara, our team cut the deficit to just 3 points thanks to two high-class shots from Yak, before Collin Malcolm lit up the arena again with a powerful two-handed dunk, plus the foul ! But on the other side, Dijon wouldn’t back down and continued raining threes. As the final quarter began, the City of Light’s team found itself trailing by 16 points. Time for an exceptional comeback.

Up to that point struggling, Nadir Hifi stepped up and carried Paris Basketball on his shoulders, scoring 16 of his 19 points in the last 5 minutes. A massive run brought us back to within two points of JDA… until Bandja missed one of his two free throws in the final seconds.

With this loss, our Parisians lose their spot at the top to ASVEL but remain in the race for first place! If we win in Nancy on Saturday and Villeurbanne loses to Dijon, we will finish atop the Betclic ELITE standings, giving us the best possible start for the playoffs!

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