Thanks to a better score, the USK basketball players got to the top of Group B. The best scorer of the Czech champions was the Australian basketball player Ezi Magbegorová with 16 points and six blocks. Her teammate María Conde added another 14 points and eight rebounds. Sika Konéová’s 16 points didn’t help the home team either.
Coach Natálie Hejková’s wards claimed their third victory out of four matches in the Euroleague and their second in a row. They have seven points on their account, just like Mersin and Bologna. The women from Prague won on the Salamanca pitch after eight years and three previous defeats. The Spanish vice-champions lost their second match in a row.
“It is a very valuable victory, because it is very difficult to play in Salamanca. Just the fact that it starts late and you wait for the match all day is unpleasant. Add to that the stormy environment here. That is also why Salamanca is a bastion of invincibility,” said Hejková .
The home players set the pace for most of the first half, but USK always managed to catch their start. Although the women from Prague were already losing 28:35 in the second quarter, thanks to nine points in a row they turned the tide. Olcay Cakirová equalized for the Spanish team at the end of the half.
After the break, however, USK’s basketball players significantly strengthened their defense and, after triples by Vyoralová, Magbegorová and Voráčková, escaped to a nine-point lead, 50:41, for the first time. They had the same lead twice more during the third quarter. Salamanca came close to a difference of six points, but could not manage more. The women from Prague also relied on their defense in the final part and did not allow the home side to press in the end. In the last ten minutes, they allowed the opponents only four points.
In the Eurocup, the Brno clubs had half the success rate
After two narrow losses in the group, Žabiny showed an improved form of the last few days against the fourth team of the French league, with which they tormented the home hegemon USK Prague on Saturday. They laid the foundation of their success on an excellent defense, which especially in the first half eliminated the scorers of the French team, who scored only 23 points in the first twenty minutes.
“We finally got together yesterday at training, which showed both in training and thank God in the match. We executed the game plan very well. We cut off their central point guard, we could have led by a bigger margin,” the assistant said about the first half Michal Martisek.
However, the seventeen-point lead slowly began to thin against a quality opponent, five minutes before the end it was only two points for Žabiny. They led by six points 65 seconds before the end, but two three-pointers by the French led the duel to overtime. One was not enough, it was decided only in the second, when the home team was held up by shooting and especially defense. The tired opponent scored only two points in five minutes and the Frogs defended their valuable victory. Their leading scorer was Elissa Cunane with 14 points.
“Our classic endings… We lead by six points with a minute left and let ourselves get two three-pointers. Then it was about morale. I’m very happy that we took the lead where we need to win games – on defense and on defensive rebounding. In in quotes, it saved our season. We are back in the game, but we have to confirm it next week in Spain,” added Martišek. Next week, the Frogs play at Cadí La Seu, against whom they lost in overtime by six points.
The best scorer of the KP team was Kateřina Galíčková with 20 points. Královo Pole thus has one win and two defeats in the middle of the group stage. In the first round, they won against Luxembourg’s Gregenwald, who will host Antalya at home in a week, in the last match of the group on November 30.
Marcela Krämer led the start of the match, at the end of the first quarter with a string of fourteen points they took a ten-point lead. They did well especially when shooting from mid-range, in the first half alone the Brňanka made eight three-pointers, and in total they scored fifteen three-pointers.
However, thanks to the two American women and Brňanek’s weaker shooting, the Turkish team started to reduce the lead, and took the lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter. The drama culminated in the end, three seconds before the end, Svatoňová’s three-pointer slipped out of the rim, and Antalya was rejoicing in its second close victory at home. A week ago, the Turkish team beat Gregenwald by a point.
2023-10-25 21:19:00
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