Recovering sensations. L’Spar Girona has done his homework this afternoon in the Basque Country winning the Kutxabank Araski on the penultimate day of the so-called “colonies” of the Girona group. In the midst of a four-game tour away from Fontajau that started with a win at Gernika and continued with Wednesday’s Euroleague loss against Sopron, today it was their turn to visit the sports center of Mendizorrotza. The team, which needed to recover feelings of victory before facing a new duel in the providential Euroleague in Miskolc (Hungary) next tuesdayhas dominated the duel from start to finish. Those of Bernat Canut and Laura Antoja they have distanced themselves in the first part thanks to the American duo Murphy–Sykesand they maintained their dominance throughout the second half, with a devastating third quarter, to seal another victory in Endesa Women’s League that serves them to maintain the leadership of the competition.
The duel has started with a tribute to Maria Asurmendi for having reached 100 games with the Araski shirt. Girona went into the game cold, and it is not surprising because the maximum temperature in Vitoria throughout the day did not exceed 4 degrees Celsius, and erratic. In fact, the score remained tied at zero until well over three minutes had passed. After an initial basket of Buranihowever, the visitors warmed up their wrists and created a partial 0-8. Marianna Tolo has won the game for Diarra under the hoop and Bernat Canut’s players have taken advantage of the losses to stretch the score even further (4-16).
Araski has cut distances from the hand of Txell Alarcón i Rebekah Gardner -who has returned to play after suffering a shoulder injury that prevented him from playing minutes in recent games- has appeared to maintain the visiting status quo. Faustine Parra and Shay Murpy joined the scoring synergy and the Girona girls went to the break dominant by 12 on the scoreboard (27-39).
A 2-17 run at the start of the third quarter stretched the gap even further, up to 21 points (29-50), after the break. The women from Girona have started to play with pleasure, putting on the court a supersonic speed that has been like a tsunami for the players of Madeleine Urieta. Seeing the wave coming at them, the Araski players did not know how to react, with only 4 points in the entire third quarter, and they saw as the visitors placed a distance (31-58) that has completely drowned their options.
With five minutes to go, the score was 40 to 70. The Girona players have been swelling to points while Araski tried to make up the result while waiting for the final horn to sound (57-76).
