Home-court loss in Euroleague in a game of opposite halves

SOPRON BASKET - ZVVZ USK PRAGUE 71-79 (15-21, 14-23, 20-10, 22-25)
Sopron

Sopron Basket: Fegyverneky 2, Turner 10, Crvendakic 13/6, Milovanovic 19, Langhorne 12 Sub.: Salvadores 11, Jovanovic 4, Dubei -

ZVVZ USK Prague: Xargay 16/6, Kat. Elhotova 16/9, Bonner 13, Zahui 15/3, Rezan 16 Sub.: Romero 3, Kar. Elhotová -, Vorackova -

Stats

FG: 27/67 40% ill. 29/68 43%

3-PTS: 2/13 15% ill. 6/16 38%

FTS: 15/22 68% ill. 15/23 65%

Rebounds: 37 (Milovanovic, Crvendakic 9-9) ill. 48 (Zahui 12)

Assists: 10 (Turner 5) ill. 17 (Xargay 7)

Steals: 6 (Langhorne 3) ill. 7 (Xargay 4)

Turnovers: 11 ill. 14

Blocks: 0 ill. 3

Faults: 24 ill. 24

The game began by Prague scoring 5 points without conceding any, and then finally Crystal managed to score a double signalling that we also arrived into the game. The number of our points didn't increase the way we wanted it, but the guests seemed to be able to find the open men, so they pulled away by six points forcing our first time-out (6th minute 4-10). After the short break Yvonne came up with a mid-range double, while Aleks made a shot from downtown, and so we cut our deficit in half (8th minute 9-12). Though the rest of the quarter was about the hosts as well, we could stop them on defense, and as a result we were down by six points at the end of the quarter (10th minute 15-21).

The second period started with Angela's double, but Prague answered back with a 3-point play right away, and after Zahui's triple our guests were in a double-digit lead for the first time in the game (17-28). By the 16th minute we fell even deeper in the hole we dug for ourselves, Prague were in a 15-point lead (16th minute 21-36). Prague didn't stop and increased their lead that almost reached the 20-point mark, but then we started to wake up and cut into their advantage. We managed to reduce the gap between the two teams to just 12 with two minutes on the clock, and the away coach, Natalia Hejkova decided to put an end to this, and called a time-out(18th minute 27-39). In the remainder of the quarter Prague scored five more points, while we could only score once, hence the 15-point away lead at half time (20th minute 29-44).

We opened the second half with a 6-0 run, Hejkova called a time-out (23rd minute 35-44). We tried our best to come closer to the guests, but it seemed like whatever we came up with they had an answer to it. With 2 minutes on the clock we were down by 12 (28th minute 38-50), but then came Yvonne and Jeca, who have led an 11-4 run until the end of the period reducing the gap to just five points before the final quarter (30th minute 49-54).

The last quarter didn't start the way the home supporters would have wanted it, our handicap was back up into double digits very quickly, but then we managed to come closer again, and a 64-67 we were down by only a single possession's worth. We had multiple chances to come even closer, or even to turn the game our way, but we couldn't convert enough of them, while on the other side, Prague didn't break under the pressure and fought back, which resulted in a double-digit lead with 80 seconds on the game clock. We tried everything in our power to come back on their necks, but they had an answer to all of our efforts, and that meant that we left the court with our second loss in this year's Euroleague group phase, and now we have the same record as our guests (40th minute 71-79).

Roberto Iniguez: We only showed our real skill after the break, and it's not enough. The first half was as if were still in Szekszárd, and then we were so far behind, that it was really hard to come back from it. I can accept if we make mistakes on offense, but we cannot miss out so many times on defense! We have three very hard games in Euroleague before christmas, and two in the Hungarian league, in which we have to find ourselves again physically and mentally as well. Life is like this, we fight, and sometimes we fall, but we have to be able to stand up.I believe in the team, I know what we're capable of! It doesn't matter how, but we have to get back in form!

Natalia Hejkova: Looking at the statistics I am very happy, because everyone in our starting five scored almost the same amount of points, and they all posed a threat to our opponent's basket. The other number that makes me happy is the rebounds, since we had 48 of them. These were the two decisive factors. With this kind of performance we can competet with anyone, even if we have some weaker periods like this time in the second half. Our short bench also gave us reasons to worry, but right now we have to be happy about the win, and that we can be in our home after a couple of hours on the bus.

Aleksandra Crvendakic: We started softly, when we should have known that there is no time to warm up in Euroleague, we have to concentrate from the beginning. The second 20 minutes were okay already, but they killed us with the rebounds. We work really hard day-by-day, so I'm sure that our two most recent games were just a bad period, we will learn from them and come back stronger than ever!

Marija Rezan: : I'm very happy about our first road win! We started very well, but we couldn't keep up that form after the break, but used all of our resources at the end which led to the result we wanted.