FRA - Les Bleus now with just one spot up for grabs

ANTIBES (FIBA Basketball World Cup) - France have trimmed their roster to just 13 players ahead of the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain with both Nobel Boungou Colo and Kim Tillie surplus to requirements.

Both players enhanced their chances of representing the country in the future with solid displays in the build-up to World Cup but competition for places in the squad was fierce.

Charles Kahudi and Edwin Jackson, the 2012-13 French league MVP, are understood to be fighting for the last spot.

The former is a high-energy, small forward who can come off the bench and bring rebounding and defense, while sharpshooter Jackson is an explosive scorer who should be a reliable source of points.

In their World Cup warm-up tournament in Pau, the French defeated Croatia, 81-71, and Greece, 81-73, but on Sunday fell to Serbia, 79-69.

Jackson provided some of the firepower in the first win with eight points, including a two-of-three effort from long range. Boungou Colo made a brief appearance in that contest while Kahudi did not play.

Boungou Colo sat out Saturday's game against Greece and afterward, France announced he had been dropped from the roster.

"Nobel scored points for the future both in terms of his attitude and also because he broke into the reckoning for the French team, which is not easy for a newcomer, given the size of the team that has been together for almost six years," said France coach Vincent Collet.

Following Sunday's defeat against Serbia, in which Tillie had six points and a rebound in almost nine minutes, the power forward was told he was going home.

Collet also praised his attitude but said there was a lot of competition at the position.

France have travelled to Antibes to continue their preparations with practices and friendly games against the Philippines (15 August), Ukraine (16 August) and Australia (17 August).

At the World Cup, France will play in Group A, in Granada, against Brazil, Egypt, Iran, Serbia and tournament hosts Spain.

FIBA