Crystal saying good-bye with a victory

VBW CEKK CEGLÉD - SOPRON BASKET 52-73 (11-18, 16-15, 16-20, 9-20)
Cegléd

VBW CEKK Cegléd: Medgyessy 14/3, Popovic 6, Kányási 9/3, Mokango -, Maksimovic 10 Sub.: Zsovár 7/3, Cooper 6, Katona Sz. -, Révész -, Kobolák -, Filipowicz V. -

Sopron Basket: Fegyverneky 9, Turner 5/3, Dubei 4, Jovanovic 9, Langhorne 19/3 Sub.: Crvendakic 16/6, Határ 6, Page 3, Weninger 2, Czukor -

Stats

2-PTS: 15/35 43% ill. 22/41 54%

3-PTS: 3/15 20% ill. 4/17 24%

FTS: 13/17 77% ill. 17/21 81%

Rebounds: 32 (Maksimovic, Cooper 7-7) ill. 42 (Langhorne 8)

Assists: 15 (Popovic 4) ill. 15 (Fegyverneky, Turner 5-5)

Steals: 4 ill. 7

Turnovers: 8 ill 9

Blocks: 1 ill. 4

Faults: 18 ill 19

VAL: 57 (Medgyessy 18) ill. 94 (Langhorne 21)

Crystal started the game off by hitting a double. Two minutes later Tina added another one to our total. Early in the game both teams were struggling to score, but after two successful free throws by Crystal our lead grew all the way up to six points (5th minute 0-6). Our American big man was unstoppable tonight, she made another double to increase our lead further. After five and a half minutes the home fans could finally witness their favorite team's firts points in the game following a single made free throw by Jelena Maksimovic (6th minute 1-8). Crystal Langhorne played fantastically this evening, she scored her 10th point in the game before being replaced by Betti Határ who also made her mark on the game immediately: she converted two free throws to make our lead even bigger (1-14). Then Maksimovic made a three-point play to come closer, and with a little less than two minutes on the clock the home bench called their first time-out in the game (9th minute 4-14). The short break in the game proved useful for Cegléd, they scored five consecutive points before Aleks broke their pace with a double from mid-range, but Maksimovic had an answer to it in form of yet another double, cutting their deficit in half by the end of the first quarter (10th minute 11-18).


The second period began with a triple by Orsolya Zsovár to which Danielle tried to answer back with some free throws but she managed to hit only one of two awarded. The hosts played better in this stage of the game, which is why coach Iniguez called his first time-out after a 5-1 run by Cegléd (12th minute 16-19). This course of action might have helped, because coming back from the bench Aleks hit a basket from the arc off the assist by Danielle doubling our advantage. Then came a scoring drought from both teams broken by Kányási's triple, which also woke us up, and Tina made a double from close in. We couldn't pull away from the hosts, though: Popovic made two free throws to keep Cegléd close to us (16th minute 21-24). Zsófi also showed herself in the game, she scored three consecutive points to grow our advantage beyond a single possession's worth. Both teams fought hard, but the difference didn't change until the buzzer signalled for the half-time break (20th minute 27-33).


In the second half the teams kept the battle going. We tried to pull away from Cegléd, but they wouldn't let us. They were physically more rested, so it was hard keeping them away from us (23rd minute 35-39). We found our rhythm in the middle of the quarter and were able to make a 12-4 run, which gave us a confident lead in this low-scoring game (27th minute 39-51). By the middle of the last period our lead was as big as 15 points, so we finally managed to break Cegléd's resistance and take control of events in the game (35th minute 48-65). Our team was calmly controlling the game holding the hosts back. We have cut down on scoring in the last few minutes, but were constantly performing well on defense (38th minute 48-67). The difference has reached 20 points by the end of the game (40th minute 52-73).

Our American center Crystal Langhorne has worn our colors for the last time in this game, whom we want to thank for recent months she spent with us! Regarding her leave our board director Zoltán Török told us: „Considering every possibility, despite all of our efforts we couldn't reach an agreement with Crystal about the future.”

Roberto Iniguez: We started well, but lost focus later on. I was very angry at half-time, but I can be satisfied with the second half again. Our hard stretch of games has reached a break.

Crystal Langhorne: Thank You for everything, Sopron! I want to thank my teammates for being able to play in such an excellent group of players! I wish the team to keep going forward this way!