11th Indian Ocean Islands Games: Men’s basketball – semifinal |02 September 2023

No breathing space for Steven Hoareau and company in the Malagasy defence (Photo: Roland Duval)

Seychelles succumb to the Malagasy defence and crowd

The men’s basketball selection will today play against Mayotte in the bronze medal final of the 11th Indian Ocean Islands Games after losing their semifinal match yesterday against hosts Madagascar in a fully-packed Palais des Sports of Mahamasina in Antananarivo.

It was obvious from the beginning that the players of coach Michel Malbrook were no match for the Malagasy selection who were dominant in all departments of the game, especially their air-tight defence which was doing a perfect job in containing the Seychelles offence, forcing a lot of turn-overs which they turned into easy buckets.

Backed by a strong crowd, the Malagasies clinched the first quarter on a 22-12 score despite some slight resistance from the Seychelles selection.

In the second quarter, Madagascar maintained their dominance on the Seychelles team who were finding it difficult to stop their opponents’ offences, and could not even penetrate their defence, thus relying on outside shooting which was not really working.

Madagascar marched on to win the second quarter 20-15 for a 42-27 lead at half-time.

In the third, the Seychelles players slightly improved their game, while the Malagasies, in front of their home crowd, kept showing their superiority in offence, delivering some spectacular dunks which ignited the crowd and this exerting more pressure on the Seychellois players as most of them had never played in such charged atmosphere before.

Madagascar scored 25 points in that quarter, while Seychelles chipped in 17, concluding it on a 67-44 advantage for the hosts.

With the win, and a spot in the final already in the bag, Madagascar kept the crowd on the edge of their seats with more spectacular individual display in the fourth and final quarter where they scored 19, compared to 11 for Seychelles, going home with an 86-55 victory.

Commenting on the match, assistant coach Grégoire Scholastique said they were aware that Madagascar would be a hard nut to crack, especially with the home crowd advantage, but nevertheless, they came out strong and tried to run their plays.

This, assistant coach Scholastique said, failed miserably as the boys were under huge pressure, mainly from the crowd, causing a lot of turnovers, allowing Madagascar to open a large gap in the score.

He added they are now focused on today’s third-place match to at least bring home the bronze medal.

For the competition, Seychelles were drawn in group B alongside Mayotte, and Mauritius.

Following their win in their first group match over Mauritius, Seychelles lost to Mayotte in their second encounter. They have an opportunity to avenge the defeat in today’s bronze medal final.

Roland Duval