Sepsis wanted to play in the Euroleague. The Romanians dominate their country’s league and, in recent years, have become a regular team in the Eurocup. The pandemic had turned the Euroleague ticket between them and Spar Girona in Turkey. A one-game tie that, while Uni prepared to compete in the league against rivals such as Valencia, Sepsi did so without playing in theirs and signing a player, the American Rebekah Gardner, just to play the game of ‘yesterday. And Gardner complied, 24 points. In fact, between her, her compatriot Tobin and the Slovak Ruzickova made 51 of the 54 points of the Romanians. A hyperactivity that allowed Sepsi to withstand the onslaught of Uni until well into the third quarter, every time the Girona left on the scoreboard Gardner reappeared. But, little by little, the most choral basketball of the team coached by Èric Surís and, between the end of the third and the beginning of the last, the success of two players with as much skill as Vasic and Eldebrink or the Elonu’s always discreet effectiveness left Sepsi without further arguments to continue fighting. In the end, 76-54.
With the yesterday’s victory against Sepsis, the Spar Girona is classified for the third time in its history (second year in a row) for the Euroleague group stage, which, given the serious health situation on a global scale, will be played in a bubble format with Girona in the same group as the powerful Russian Ekaterinburg, the Italian Schia and the Latvian Riga. If the evolution of the pandemic allows it, the first bubble of this group will be in Fontajau between November 29 and December 5.
To reach this phase of groups, or “bubbles”, the Uni had to make a remarkable psychological effort yesterday in Izmit. You had to have concentration to, after a good staging (14-6), not panic when Sepsi proved it would not throw in the towel at the first change. Either with Gardner’s points, or with the open shots of the high Ruzickova, the Romanians did not decline in the first two times that the team coached by Eric Suris put ten points above the scoreboard. For example, Gardner made five points in a row when Uni had gone 31-20. And so on. Until, at the end of the third quarter, Sepsis had to say enough. Vasic and Eldebrink made it clear that Uni wanted to play in the Euroleague.
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