A little over a month after the first leg, which saw the Burgundians win at Ekinox (88-81, December 18), JDA Dijon and JL Bourg met at the Palais des sports on Saturday evening. The Bressans took a big revenge, winning by 34 points (54-88).
Laurent Legname, his assistant Frédéric Wiscaert-Goetz, Axel Julien, Alexandre Chassang and Rasheed Sulaimon were all warmly applauded at the presentation of the teams.
The first quarter was particularly tight with never more than two possessions in advance for one of the two teams (19-22, 10th). Nevertheless, the Bressans raced in the lead and shared the ball as rarely this season in the French championship.
This impression was confirmed over the minutes, and JL Bourg returned to the locker room with the biggest advantage of the first half (30-44, 20th). His zone defense left JDA Dijon unanswered, with David Holston and Khadeen Carrington angered with their three-point shot.
Offensively, the visitors applied Laurent Legname’s philosophy by always favoring the same solution instead of relying on one or two single scorers. Eight out of nine pros had scored at the break, with 10 points for Rasheed Sulaimon and 8 points for Pierre Pelos and JaCorey Williams.
On resumption, JL Bourg still prevented the Dijonnais from entering the euphoria. Better, it put a blow to their morale, thanks to two long shots from Maxime Courby and Rasheed Sulaimon (35-52, 25th). And if the JDA signed a 9-0 (44-58, 29th), it ended the third quarter too far to dream of an improbable comeback (44-65, 30and ).
Worse, the Burgundians suffered their second salty defeat of the week, after that of Wednesday in Ludwigsburg in BCL (73-95).
On Wednesday, JL Bourg will travel to Patras (Greece) in the Eurocup, before hosting Pau-Lacq-Orthez at Ekinox on Saturday February 5th.