PAU (France) - Montenegro had a chance of stealing a big game on the road, but they let a second-half 10-point lead slip out of their hands, suffering a 73-67 defeat in their opener. France delivered in the clutch, putting together a 13-1 run when it mattered most, starting a big party in the packed arena in Pau.

Coach Vincent Collet found minutes for all 12 of his players, while Montenegro tried their best with a nine-man rotation, but ran out of gas in the fourth quarter.

Turning point: Montenegro had a 10-point lead late in the third, and were still up early in the fourth before they made a couple of big defensive mistakes. Both times they left Nicolas Lang open, and the sharp shooter made a couple of three-pointers and a layup to start the aforementioned run.

Isaia Cordinier and Louis Labeyrie finished the job, taking France from a 63-60 deficit to a 73-64 advantage inside the final 30 seconds. Vladimir Mihailovic's three-pointer set the final gap at six points, maybe it plays a role in the battle for the tiebreaker.

Game hero: Lang needed just 13 minutes to score 12 points off the bench, 11 of them coming in the final quarter.

Stats don't lie: It's not as fancy as offensive and defensive ratings or any other advanced metric. It's the basics, the fundamentals, that stole the game from Montenegro, because they aren't going to defeat anybody while shooting 9-of-20 from the free-throw line.

Bottom line: France now travel to Kaposvar for a matchup with Hungary on Monday. Montenegro will be back home to face Portugal, already a must-win game for the team from the Adriatic coast.

They said: "Congrats to France for the victory, we came here with a lot of problems but I thought we played a good game for the first 35 minutes. After that the deeper bench of France made the difference. We also missed 11 free throws and in a game like this, against France, it's very difficult to win if you don't make free-throws. But overall we played a quite good game and we have to take that and prepare for the next game at home against Portugal" - Montenegro head coach Bosko Radovic.

"We are very glad to have won this game because it was very tough. Montenegro played very well until the ned of the third quarter and if they dropped in the fourth it was a lot thanks to or good defensive effort, and not only. Offensively we also found our aggressiveness, but you could see before that it was very difficult. We had a bad start, we missed shots. Although we were expecting their big men to play well, [Vladimir] Mihailovic was a real problem until the end. And what he did in the first half was really high level, first he was scoring from three and when we opened the defense he drove to the basket and finished in traffic. It's an important win and it's a good win, because Montenegro played really well tonight." - France head coach Vincent Collet

FIBA