After beating Famila Schio, Valencia Basket tied the quarterfinal series at La Fonteta and is only one victory away from continuing to make history, from reaching the Final Four of the most important club competition for the first time. Thanks to the outstanding performance of the entire team, with the special brilliance of Raquel Carrera (21 points, 11 rebounds and a PIR of 33), and an extraordinary atmosphere in the Fonteta stands, the ‘taronja’ knocked down the Italian champion and on Wednesday , March 22, they will fight in Schio to be in the final four of the Euroleague Women.
Valencia BC came out on top. The triples from Lauren Cox and Leti Romero kept him in front (8-5, m. 4), just until a sensational Carrera took over. The Galician responded to baskets by Constanza Verona and Jasmine Keys. Only Rhyne Howard, with an outside shot, neutralized the points of the international center (14-14, m. 7). But Raquel did not stop, she continued to explode the Italian zone and stop Astou Ndour. With a fantastic past hoop, she reached ten points and the team reached +3 (18-15, m. 9). An income that vanished with two actions by Martina Bestagno and Egle Sventoraite at the end of the quarter (18-19, m. 10).
The valuable help of Torrens
The second act began with the good news of the return of Alba Torrens, away from the slopes for a month and a half due to knee problems. The forward returned control with a triple sample of his enormous personality (21-19, m. 11). Shortly after, Marie Gülich joined the scoring party with a 3+1 (27-22, m. 12). Queralt Casas returned to distance himself from his team again (38-27, m. 15). Only the talent of women like Howard and Keys kept Schio standing (38-35, m. 17). Although Cox joined in an instant of need to, in a short time, score a 2 + 1, take Ndour’s second personal and score again from the line of three (44-35, m. 18). Despite this, Keys was still too loose. And, to the points of the American interior, a last and damaging triple of Verona would be added (46-42, m. 20).
In the third quarter, Valencia BC continued to be the better team. In the paint, Gülich and Carrera, in perfect connection with Romero, forced the opponent’s timeout (52-42). The difference shot up to +11 again, thanks to the aim of Leti Romero (55-44, m. 23). But, once again, the Italians subsisted on the talent of Keys and Mabrey (55-49, m. 25). Verona would extend the life of his team. The point guard answered a triple by Torrens, productive in his minutes on the track, and reduced the lead taking advantage of a technique by Cierra Burdick (66-59, m. 30).
The public rose with the external ‘dagger’ of Elena Buenavida (69-61), to which Howard would soon reply (69-63, m. 32). This time, with the fans carrying it, the team did not fall, they drew strength from weakness and clung to their intense defense for 40 minutes. Gülich, immense, placed two blocks on Ndour, and the air came with the baskets of Ángela Salvadores and Burdick (76-67, m. 37). But once again, Schio did not throw in the towel. Giorgia Sottana, from three, and five consecutive points from the lethal Mabrey made the score red hot (76-75, m. 39). Mabrey had it, but missed. A golden rebound from Carrera started the play for the final victory, a triple, playing with the iron, from Cox (79-75, m. 40) 16 seconds from the end.
