Cholet Basket opened their league campaign on Sunday, September 27, with a defeat against l’Asvel. Despite walking away from the parquet empty-handed, the squad from the Mauges region found plenty of encouraging signals to build upon as they shake off the early-season rust.
Cholet Basket Tested by ASVEL Villeurbanne in Opening LNB Pro A Clash
Facing an opponent boasting Euroleague pedigree on opening weekend is a baptism by fire for any roster still finding its footing. Cholet’s interior presence, Lynn Kidd, noted the undeniable strides the team made compared to their previous outings in the preseason preparations.
Inside Cholet’s Encouraging Strides Against Euroleague Competition
"I think that we improved compared to last week," Kidd shared following the final buzzer. "We played a better match, knowing that we were playing against a Euroleague team. But we still had a lot of ups and downs. We had moments when we played incredible basketball, then we came back in the score only to ruin it all."
Those flashes of dynamic play kept Cholet within striking distance for large stretches of the contest.
The Costly Third Quarter Collapse in Villeurbanne
The turning point arrived in the third quarter, a frame that exposed the steep learning curve facing this evolving Cholet rotation. A sudden cascade of minor mistakes instantly flipped the momentum of the game.
"We were really on a good rhythm, and then several things happened in the 3rd quarter," Kidd explained. "An injury, a few turnovers, a stupid foul on my part… You then have to fight again to close the gap in the score, you spend your energy there, fatigue sets in, and that’s when we lost the match."
Against elite competition like Villeurbanne, lapses in concentration carry an immediate penalty.
Searching for Consistency Across All Four Quarters
While the final box score favored the hosts from Villeurbanne, the locker room mood in the visitors’ quarters was far from despondent. The consensus among the players points to steady, daily growth rather than panic over an opening-night stumble.
"They punish everything," Kidd added, acknowledging the unforgiving nature of the league’s upper echelon. "Every mistake we make, they take advantage to punish us."
