Nigeria’s Susie Rafiu Delivers Double-Double as Landerneau Crushes Chartres

Rookie Susie Rafiu posted a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double to help Landerneau overwhelm Chartres 80-62 in France’s top-tier La Boulangère Wonderligue. Landerneau led most of the game and controlled every quarter except the second, when Chartres scored 23 points to narrow LBB’s lead to one (40-39) at halftime.

Rafiu helped her side build a 21-13 lead after the first quarter with a knockdown triple, two crucial offensive rebounds, and a smooth dime to Harmoni Turner, who finished the game with 24 points.

Although she started the second quarter with a defensive rebound off a Yvanna Enjolvy miss, she was mostly a non-factor, partly because the three-time Ivy League champion picked up her second foul.

However, in the third quarter, when Landerneau held Chartres to just ten points while recording 21 of their own, Rafiu scored four points, grabbed three rebounds and one steal to help her northwestern France-based club establish a 12-point lead (61-49) going into the last period.

Rafiu, who debuted for Nigeria’s D’Tigress this summer, helped LBB maintain control in the fourth quarter with seven points, three rebounds, and one assist, including an early three-pointer that extended the lead to 17.

Landerneau finished with an 80-62 win, improving to a .500 record (four wins and four losses) and 12 points, sitting in sixth place, behind Lyon. Guinea national team star and Landerneau team captain Masseny Kaba finished the game with five points, eight rebounds and five assists.

The 6’1″ forward, who shot 51.5% from the field in her final year at Columbia University, is in a rich vein of form, having scored a career-high 22 points in the EuroCup against Poznan three days ago and 12 points, eight rebounds, and three assists against Lyon earlier in the week.

[Photography for Hero Image Owned and Courtesy of Didier Appéré]