Bourges claim SuperCup Women title

Bourges Basket - Sopron Basket 65-44 (15-11, 14-15, 14-8, 22-10)
Bourges

Bourges Basket: Michel 3/3, Anderson 6, Guapo 16/3, Alexander 20, Godin 6 Sub.: Steinberga 7, Bankole 3/3, Zodia -, Colin -

Sopron Basket: Fegyverneky -, Sykes 10, Kunek 2, Brooks 20/3, Magbegor 8 Sub.: Czukor 2, Varga A. 2, Stankovic -, Böröndy -

Statistics

FGS: 27/58 47% ill. 16/62 26%

3-PTS: 3/6 50% ill. 1/15 7%

FTS: 8/11 73% ill. 11/14 79%

Rebounds: 45 (Alexander 11) ill. 33 (Kunek, Magbegor, Brooks 6-6))

Assists: 21 (Anderson 7) ill. 5 (Sykes 4)

Steals: 6 (Guapo 3) ill. 15 (Brooks 4)

Turnovers: 20 ill. 13

Faults: 18 ill. 17

Ezi got the game going with an open lay-up, to which Alexander answered back with a three-point play (3-2). Jeca was also successful from the charity stripe, and then came a bit of a dry spell on both ends. By the middle of the period Brittney went in for a lay-up to end the drought, to which Bourges answered back with two successful free throws, and then Guapo gave the advantage back to the home side (7th minute 7-6). The last few minutes went better for the French, who were ahead by four at the end of the first period (10th minute 15-11).


Dalma opened the second quarter with a mid-range double, to which Anderson answered back from inside. However, Brittney managed to tie the game up. Then came an exchange of buckets between Anderson and Jeca with the latter hitting from outside, and giving us the advantage again, and forcing Olivier Lafargue to call a time-out (15th minute 19-20). Brittney kept scoring after the short pause, too, and gave the team the boost to keep scoring and pull away by five (21-26). However, that was when the home side also kicked it up a notch, and came up with an 8-0 run to end the half (20th minute 29-26).


With more than two minutes gone from the period Alexander came up with a three-point play, and then she also added a bucket from inside the paint, and when she made a lay-up as well, Dávid Gáspár had to call a time-out, because the difference reached the ten-point mark (24th minute 36-26). Jeca made a double coming back on the court, and then after a bucket by Bourges she added another one. Despite all of our effort, we couldn’t come closer to Bourges, and they pulled away by nine until the end of the third period (30th minute 43-34).


Godin opened the final stage of the game with a double, and then came an unsportsmanlike foul by Brittney, which gave Bourges an extra point, followed by another one by Jeca, after which Bourges scored one of three from the foul line, making it a thirteen-point game (33rd minute 47-34). With more than four minutes gone from the quarter Jeca was finally able to put our first points on the scoreboard, but Bourges kept delivering on offense as well, forcing Dávid Gáspár to call his team to the bench to talk things over again (36th minute 52-36). With a bit more than two minutes on the clock Bourges increased their advantage over twenty points, and came away with a confident win in the SuperCup Women final (40th minute 65-44).

Dávid Gáspár: Congratulations to our opponent, they deserved to win! What we have to realize is that we are still in the middle of a team building process. We have to learn the roles, and responsibilities. That doesn't happen overnight. We found a lot of positives, too, the game went well for us for a long time, but basketball is played for baskets. We were terrible in that regard! We reacted to Bourges' defense with good decisions, but didn't make the shots. We raise our heads, keep working, this game showed where we have to go further!

Jelena Brooks: Congratulations top Bourges! Like the stats show, our shooting percentage was terrible tonight. We had our chances, but couldn't make the shots. They played better than we did. We have to learn from the mistakes, and look ahead. Euroleague is getting started, the Hungarian league is underway, we have to get better and improve step-by-step!

Olivier Lafargue: We are very happy, we won against a good team! We still need to work a lot, on defense as well as on offense at the beginning of the season. Sopron had a lot of rebounds at the beginning of the game, even with their missed shots. When we improved in that regard, we controlled the rebounds, we could be successful, and managed to tire Sopron's key players with our defense.

Kayla Alexander: Tonight's win came on top of a great team effort. I think defense was the key to victory.