French League Semifinals, Game 1: May 31, 2008
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The top two teams from the regular season proved their worth once again with double-digit wins in the openers of the French League semifinals on Saturday. Regular-season champ Le Mans blasted defending champion Choral Roanne 82-67, while Sluc Nancy bested Asvel Basket 86-75. Both teams swept their quarterfinals series and will look to do the same in the best-of-three semis. Asvel hosts Game 2 of that series on Tuesday and Roanne welcomes Le Mans to town on Wednesday. Le Mans led only 38-34 at halftime, but held the typically high-scoring Roanne attack to 12 third-quarter points as it opened a double-digit lead, which the hosts only padded in the fourth quarter. The key stat for Le Mans was its three-point shooting. Luka Bogdanovic and Nebojsa Bogavac drilled 5 triples apiece as the team shot 15 for 31 (48.4%) from downtown. Bogdanovic finished with 21 points, Bogavac added 16, Nicolas Batum 15 and Sam Clancy posted 7 points and 14 rebounds. Marc Salyers carried Roanne with 30 points and Brion Rush added 11. Meanwhile Nancy went ahead early and coasted to its Game 1 win. Mike Bauer scored 24 points and grabbed 8 rebounds to lead the Nancy attack. Ricardo Greer posted 17 points, 8 boards and 6 assists, Jeff Greer added 13 points and Victor Samnick had 10 points and 9 rebounds. Laurent Foirest paced Asvel with 15 points, Uche Nsonwu posted 13 points and 9 rebounds, Yohann Sangare scored 12 and Chevy Troutman 10.
| Semifinals Playoffs, best of 3 games |
| Record | Team | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | | 1 | Le Mans (1) | 82 | June 4 | *June 7 | | 0 | Roanne (4) | 67 | - | - | | 1 | Nancy (2) | 86 | June 3 | *June 7 | | 0 | Asvel Basket (3) | 75 | - | - |
| Semifinals games | | Game 1 | Le Mans vs. Roanne | 82-67 | May 31 | | Game 1 | Nancy vs. Asvel Basket | 86-75 | May 31 | | Game 2 | Roanne vs. Le Mans | - | June 4 | | Game 2 | Asvel Basket vs. Nancy | - | June 3 | | Game 3 | Le Mans vs. Roanne | - | *June 7 | | Game 3 | Nancy vs. Asvel Basket | - | *June 7 |
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