Those of Bernat Canut were clearly imposed on the Italians by 83-63
They maintain the tie at two wins in two days with Sopron and Perfumerías
Spar Girona celebrated this Wednesday a convincing and incontestable victory against the Italian Beretta Famila Schio (83-63)to ratify a brilliant and exciting start to the season and continue Euroleague group B co-leadertied for two wins in two days with the Hungarian Sopron Basket and Perfumerías Avenida.
turn
BER
LINEUPS
Spar Girona (25+18+20+20)
Flores (9), Drammeh (10), Gardner (14), Araújo (10), Tolo (4) -initial five-; Etxarri (5), Murphy (11), Labuckiene (4), Cornelius (9), Bradford (5), Parra (-) and Ribas (2).
Beretta Family Schio (15+13+12+23)
Mabrey (13), Howard (12), Penna (6), Zahui (2), Ndour (11) -initial five-; Mestdagh (8), Sottana (4), Bestagno (-), Keys (4) and Verona (3).
referees
Fuska (Slovakia), Baloun (Czech Republic) and Sentürk Bayraktar (Turkey).
Incidents
Fontajau. 500 spectators.
Bernat Canut’s team, leader of the Endesa Women’s League and champion of the Super Cup, had already beaten Basket Landes (53-58) and this Wednesday won the ninth win in ten games after being far superior to the Italian team, which had also won on the first date of the group stage.
The night began with a face to face between two of the best ‘rookies’ of the year of the WNBA: Rebekah Gardner, the MVP of the last Endesa League, opened the scoring with a triple and Rhyne Howard responded with a three-point shot before assisting Marina Mabrey to turn the score around (3-5).
But the Italian team, a rival in the Euroleague for the fourth consecutive season, was only 17 seconds ahead, because the initiative was always Girona’s. Gardner led the team, with seven of the Catalans’ first eleven points (11-5). The transalpines tried to react, but Girona took advantage of an unsportsmanlike foul to increase their advantage through Laura Cornelius and Shay Murphy (20-12).
The difference was ten points at the end of the first quarter (25-15), after a triple by Crystal Bradford, and was twelve at the beginning of the second. Between one quarter and another, a scolding was heard from the visiting coach, Georgios Dikaioulakos, to his players: he said they were playing “heartlessly” and “stupidly” and that their game was “a disgrace”.
But the dynamic not only did not change, but it was accentuated in the second period. Girona was far superior in intensity and concentration: they finished the first half with eight steals to the three of Famila Schio, who in the first act lost 12 balls and conceded up to 11 offensive rebounds.
Girona added 22 points coming off the bench, 12 from second chance and 11 after a loss in the first half, which ended with a result of 43-28 after a triple by Murhpy and two consecutive offensive rebounds by Marianna Tolo.
Before, the rival had come within six points with two triples in a row from the Spanish international Astou Ndour and Mabrey (27-21), but Laura Cornelius stopped the visitor’s awakening with a three-point shot and Girona began to extend its advantage unopposed, against a frustrated rival.
He continued to do so at the start of the second half, with the match already well on track: María Araújo led the maximum distance to 19 points (47-28)enabled by Laia Flores, Binta Drammeh up to 21 with a triple (50-29) and Gardner up to 23 with a great entry to the basket (52-29).
They were 26 at the beginning of the last quarter with a 2+1 from Bradford (66-40), to the delight of a pavilion that enjoyed the hand of its team and even saw Faustine Parra and Berta Ribas debut in Europe. The game ended with a 25-point advantage for the Girona team, with Gardner (14) as the top scorer.