Reach and grind. Spar Girona easily and comfortably defeated Movistar Estudiantes (87-75) in the last league game before the international break. After the victory against Sopron Basket, and still weakened by the losses of Laura Cornelius and Binta Drammeh, the Girona women ran over David Gallego’s team in front of a Fontajau pavilion that was full (4,600 spectators) and buried the doubts generated after the defeats against Casademont Zaragoza and Kangoeroes Mechelen. The success in the outside shot (13/22), especially in the first half, was key. Everything was watched from the bench, and in street clothes, Crystal Bradford, who has counted her hours in Girona.
So, a well-deserved mini-holiday for a large part of the Uni staff, who yesterday lived with excitement as hundreds of families cheered on the premises with the smallest members of their respective clans. Those who will not be able to fully enjoy the break will be María Araújo and Irati Etxarri, who have been called up to play the qualifying matches for the 2023 Eurobasket with the Spanish national team.
As soon as the game started, Araújo and Shay Murphy took out the cobwebs on the perimeter (5/6 in the first quarter) after the three-point shot was one of the pending subjects of the Girona team in everything we carry from competition Even Bernat Canut acknowledged in statements after the game that the rate of success from outside in the first half had been “unreal”. The Madrid girls held on despite the absence of their injured conductor, Melissa Gretter, and ended up losing the first quarter to the home team (29-20) without being able to resist their scoring pace.
Spectators in Fontajau wondered what Parra and Flores usually have for breakfast when they were perplexed to see how the two bases began to make a recital of triples difficult for Estudiantes to assimilate (42-23). Barely two minutes into the second quarter, the distance was practically unsustainable for the visitors, with a difference of more than twenty points. Parra, who already scored a goal in the Euroleague game against Sopron, raised the crowd on a couple of occasions thanks to an extraordinary hit. The distance was such that even Berta Ribas and Mar Ibern disputed a few minutes.
After the break, Uni dropped revolutions. The attempts of Laura Méndez (19 points) – with Girona past, since she played with GEIEG in LF2 – and Nadia Fingall, were insufficient to have real options, but they served to make up the final result. They got to 8 (80-72) with less than two minutes to go, but it wasn’t a scare. The Spar goes to the stop with a pool of points and the homework done. The team will resume the competition next December 1 to welcome Araski in Fontajau.
