Facing a serious challenge on opening day of Euroleague
The most prestigious international women's competition, the Euroleague is getting started on Wednesday. The schedule calls our team to France, just like last year, but hopefully this ends better than last season's opening day.
Last year the first task awaited on the home court of Flammes Carolo. That time we were unable to succeed. The rookies have summoned a great deal of energy against our team that has got the silver medal in the previous season and came up with a well-deserved victory. Our team that has become even younger will have an even more difficult task to complete on opening day.
Last year's EuroCup and French league runners-up have come to the group stage of Euroleague from the qualifiers, not giving a chance to Olympiacos. What shows their strength te best is the fact that they have overcome French title holders Lyon easily, 74-58, even though Lyon are pursuing to take over the top squad title from Bourges in France.
The GM work of former renowned point guard Edwige Lawson-Wade has brought BLMA to an upward trajectory very quickly, who, despite the great season they had last year has changed a little during the summer, but as shown, they haven't become any weaker. They survived the loss of one of their leaders, Serbian ace Ana Dabovic to Bourges. They have everything to do something memorable in Euroleague after EuroCup.
Let's take a look at the arrivals. The biggest move they made proved to be the addition of American Stephanie Mavunga from Krasnojarsk. The center who is a great scorer and an effective rebounder has become one of the leaders at her new station very quickly as well. In the qualifiers she brought an outstanding 31.5 efficiency rating. It will be very hard to stop her, especially considering that Marie-Michelle Milapie who joined the team from Basket Landes is also a strong force under the rims. Gabby Williams who left Girona behind for this opportunity is also capable of delivering an outstanding performance in multiple areas. Aside from scoring she also excels at assisting her teammates and collecting rebounds. With her 32 years of age Laeticia Kamba represents experience, while Swedish player Klara Lundquist represents the new generation. From the creators of last year's success, American scorer Samantha Whitcomb, great point guard Romane Bernies, Alix Duchet, who is capable of great performances despite her young age of 21 one years, and 28-year-old Diandra Tchatchouang is worth mentioning. The nine of them are on whom the team's physical and well-organized style of play is built. They represent the typical French basketball, which may cause their rivals a lot of trouble.
The game will also be a great challenge for us too. Head coach Dávid Gáspár is also eagerly waiting for our debut in Euroleague, where we will need to take control, and be focused all along.
The game that tips off at 8.00 pm can be followed via live online statistics at the FIBA website, and via live video streaming on the Euroleague YouTube channel.
Because of the SuperCup game on Tuesday our next home game will take place at an unusual time, on Friday from 6 pm, in which we host BKG PRIMA NATURA Szigetszentmiklós
A jövő keddi Szuper Kupa mérkőzés miatt szokatlan időpontban, pénteken 18 órakor kerül sor a következő hazai bajnoki mérkőzésünkre, melyen a BKG PRIMA NATURA Szigetszentmiklóst fogadjuk
The board of our club has great experience in managing difficulties, but we are facing an especially huge challenge in terms of functioning due to the energy crisis, as well as on a professional level, since Courtney Vandersloot is for now unable to join our team due to personal reasons
Klubunk vezetésének nagy tapasztalata van már a nehézségek menedzselése terén, de most különösen nagy kihívások elé nézünk a működés tekintetében az energia-válság miatt, illetve szakmai vonalon is, miután személyes okok miatt Vandersloot Courtney egyelőre nem tud csatlakozni a keretünkhöz