It's time for France to run

ISTANBUL (FIBA World Championship for Women) - It was pleasing to the eye for French fans to see their team get into transition and score easy baskets against Serbia on the last day of the FIBA World Championship for Women.

Diandra Tchatchouang and Paoline Salagnac were electrifying at times and combined to score 27 points, with many coming on fastbreaks.

The French won that game, 88-74, to clinch seventh place.

Too often at the World Championship, instead of playing at a breakneck pace in the open floor, Valerie Garnier's team got stuck in a half-court offense and struggled to get points.

"We need this because it's easy baskets," Garnier said to FIBA.com.

We have a lot of difficulty in scoring in the set offense. - Garnier

"With this kind of running, it's easier to score but we need to rebound.

"If we rebound, then we can run. Against Serbia, we rebounded."

Twenty-four of France's 40 rebounds came on the defensive end of the floor. Garnier's team out-rebounded Serbia, 41-20.

Tchatchouang admits that the running game is a weapon that she and her teammates need to make better use of.

"We have a lot of players that love to run and that's what the coach asks for but sometimes, maybe we think too much and don't run as much as we want," she said.

With the players that we have, we should run. - Tchatchouang

"When we run, some teams struggle to defend us. But it's down to us. We just have to understand our qualities."

France had a lot of new players make their World Championship bows in Turkey.

Every game was an opportunity to get better.

While some of the players like Sandrine Gruda and Celine Dumerc had to deal with the frustration of losing in the Quarter-Final to the United States instead of competing for a podium place as they had the previous three years at the EuroBaskets in Poland and France, and the 2012 London Olympics, the participation in Turkey should help the team in the future.

"We needed more experience," said Garnier.

"It's a new team. To perform, they need to live games, to experience victory and defeat."

Tchatchouang had an opportunity to go up against the best teams in women's basketball.

She knows exactly what she has to do get better and be more of a weapon for France next year, when the team will attempt to qualify for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

"For me, I need to work on my shooting range, my ball-handling," she said.

"I want to play outside so I have to be able to handle the ball, take some pick and rolls so I need to need to work on it."

As for Garnier, Turkey represented her first chance to lead the national team as the head coach.

She had previously worked as an assistant to Pierre Vincent.

To finish with a win over Serbia was a relief.

"It's always better to finish with a victory, to continue to improve, to continue to work and to come back," she said.

"It's important for the French to win, and with this attitude."

FIBA