Effortless win for Kursk in Euroleague

Dinamo Kurszk - Sopron Basket 78-47 (22-10, 15-9, 19-16, 22-12)
Kursk

Dinamo Kurszk: Baric 15/6, Xargay 5/3, Johnson 2, Bonner 14/6, Breland 10 Sub.: Kirillova 13/9, Prince 8/3, Anoikina 8, Frolkina 3/3, Zhedik -

Sopron Basket: Fegyverneky 2, January -, Czukor 2, Crvendakic 14/3, Határ 14 Sub.: Jovanovic 8, Dubei 7/3, Weninger -, Varga A. -

Stats

FGS: 30/55 55% ill. 18/57 32%

3-PTS: 10/16 63% ill. 2/17 12%

FTS: 8/8 100% ill. 9/11 82%

Rebounds: 35 (Johnson 8) ill. 30 (Határ 7)

Assists: 26 (Baric 8) ill. 16 (Crvendakic 5)

Steals: 6 ill. 3

Turnovers: 10 ill. 12

Faults: 18 ill. 14

EFF: 110 (Baric 26) ill. 46 (Határ 18)

Aleks opened the game with a mid-range jumper, to which Johnson answered back with a double of her own right away. After that Betti and Breland exchanged buckets, followed by a close shot by Baric (4th minute 6-4). The teams were neck and neck until 11-10, but that was when Kursk managed to get some air and force our first time-out in the game (7th minute 15-10). Kursk picked up where they left off before the short pause, and close the first quarter with an 11-0 run to get into a comfortable position early on (10th minute 22-10).


Breland stretched the Russians’ run even further with a double to begin the second period, to which Kirillova added a triple (13th minute 27-10). Tina put an end to our scoring drought that lasted for almost eight minutes with one successful free throw, after which head coach Roberto Iniguez called a time-out for Kursk to talk things over (27-11). Johnson hit a triple right after the short pause, and a minute later the difference went over twenty points for the first time in the game (16th minute 32-11). We had to wait over seven minutes for our first field goal in the second quarter, which was scored by Aleks from under the rim off a nice spin move. Bonner and Aleks both made two free throws, to which Zsófi added two more. When Aleks hit another jumpshot from the side Kursk called their next time-out (34-19). Prince ended the half with a triple giving Kursk a commanding lead (20th minute 37-19).


Baric got the second half going with a lay-up, to which Betti answered back with two baskets of her own forcing Roberto Iniguez to call his next time-out (23rd minute 39-23). Bonner drained a corner three after the break, while Betti kept scoring at the other end. In this quarter neither side was able to take control of the game so the difference remained around that of half time (26th minute 46-29). We were closest to Kursk in this quarter at 48-35, but then they scored eight points to pull further away from us again (30th minute 56-35).


Debi opened the final stage of the game with a mid-range double, to which Prince answered back likewise. Then Tina converted an inbound play into two points under the rim, but Bonner was also able to score at the other end (33rd minute 60-39). Debi and Kirillova both hit triples afterward, to which the latter then added a lay-up, too. With a little more than three minutes left on the clock Debi made two foul shots to reduce the gap to 25 points, but a bit later Xargay buried a three to make it thirty for the first time in the game, meaning that Kursk came away win an easy victory (40th minute 78-47).

Dávid Gáspár: Congratulations to Dynamo Kursk, they have a great team and a great coaching staff. We can see that they are doing a professional job, they were organized defensively and offensively. In our case, injuries are hurting us double the usual amount, which means that players have too take on different roles. For that to work we need patience, and this was a good opportunity to face a team filled with superstars, and get a taste of the level we should reach. We have to keep working and we have to keep believing in what we do. If we do that we can look into the mirror and say that we did everything. This is what we do day-by-day, but now that was enough to deliver this result.

Briann January: It was a tough game. They have a really good team, We are working to find a way for our team to be successful, and in order to do so we need to learn from games like this. We have nothing but tough games ahead of us so we just have to keep getting better and keep playing hard.