Girona snap our unbeaten record in Euroleague

SPAR Citylift Girona - Sopron Basket 64-58 (14-17, 16-11, 20-9, 14-21)
Girona

SPAR Citylift Girona: Palau -, Mendy 16/6, Elonu 11, Araujo 6, Coulibaly 9 Sub.: Sykes 11/3, Buch 11/3, Andusic -, Oma -

Sopron Basket: Fegyverneky 5/3, January 6/3, Crvendakic 19/15, Brooks 10, Jovanovic 16 Sub.: Határ 2, Dubei -, Weninger -

Stats

FGS: 23/59 39% ill. 22/57 39%

3-PTS: 4/18 22% ill. 7/17 41%

FTS: 14/21 67% ill. 7/7 100%

Rebounds: 44 (Coulibaly 14) ill. 29 (Brooks 10)

Assists: 5 (Palau 4) ill. 15 (Fegyverneky 5)

Steals: 8 (Elonu 3) ill. 9 (Brooks 4)

Turnovers: 12 ill. 12

Faults: 14 ill. 20

EFF: 66 (Coulibaly 13) ill. 62 (Jovanovic 17)

Elonu got the game going with a double for Girona, to which Mendy added another one, and then Araujo also scored, to which Tina was finally able to answer back from under the rim. However, the home side kept scoring, which forced head coach Dávid Gáspár to call his first time-out in the game to talk things over (4th minute 10-2). Tina and Mendy exchanged buckets after the short pause, and then our Serbian center also hit two from the foul line. Then Aleks stunned Girona with a huge triple, which became the last made shot for a long time, until Jeca brought us back to a sngle point deficit. What's more, Briann made yet another triple hich already gave us the lead forcing Girona's first time-out (12-14)! Elonu tied the game up after the break, but then Briann got fouled in the act of shooting when the buzzer rang, and she made all three free throws to end the first period (10th minute 14-17).


Aleks hit one from downtown to begin the second quarter, but the home side wouldn't let us pull away from them (13th minute 20-22). Five minutes into the quarter Girona tied it up again, and when Buch made a demoralizing three to regain the lead for her team, Dávid Gáspár called his next time-out to stop the run (27-24). Mendy drained a three, to which Tina answered back from inside the paint, and then Jeca closed the half with a mid-range double form the side (20th minute 30-28).


Jeca tied the game up to begin the second half but then Araujo gave the lead back to Girona with a double (23rd minute 32-30). In the next couple of minutes both sides were playing with many mistakes, thanks to a great defensive effort, but in the second half of the period Girona took control and pulled away from us to get some air in form of a two possession lead (37-33). What's more, with two successful free throws they even increased their lead further before Tina was able to react with a double (27th minute 41-35). However, that wasn't enough to gain momentum, and with a little more than a minute left in the quarter the home side increased their advantage into the double-digit region for the first time in the game, and then Sykes put three more on the board right before the sound of the buzzer (30th minute 50-37).


Buch opened the final stage of the game with a double, to which Aleks answered back likewise. However hard we were trying to come closer to the hosts, Girona always fought back and wouldn't let us cut into our deficit (33rd minute 54-43). Then Aleks showed her class again with a triple, and later when Jeca made a lay-up from under the rim we were only down by seven (37th minute 57-50). Zsófi hit a huge three to get us closer, to which Jeca added two successful free throws, before Mendy made a three to force our next time-out (62-55). Mendy kept delivering on offense for Girona and decided everything with two foul shots but Aleks had the final say with a buzzer-beating triple (40th minute 64-58).

Dávid Gáspár: Congratulations to Girona, they played tough and fought well. We encountered a rock solid defense, to which we didn't react the best way many times. We will analyze the game and learn a lot from it. Congratulations to my team as well, we fought well. We had many problems today, but were equal to them on the court. Even though we didn't have a chance to win by the end we still kept fighting.

Aleksandra Crvendakic: We had a hard time getting into rhythm, and we had a lot of problems with rebounds and boxing out. We have to re-watch the game, and learn from it, the end of the season is still a long way ahead of us! We'll keep working!