Many good factors explain the good start of the IDK Euskotren that has placed it as co-leader along with Valencia, Girona and Zaragoza, after seven … days. Defense is one of the key aspects, proving right to those who embrace the phrase that “attack wins games and defense wins championships.” Good work in your own zone ensures that you always stay in the game until the day you are not very lucky in front of the basket. For now it is not happening in Ibaeta’s team, who meets two perfect requirements: he is seeing the basket with ease because he shoots well and the defense is being one of the strongest in the League.
At this point, the Senegalese interior Khadija Faye and the San Sebastian player María Eraunzetamurgil appear, who are among the best blockers in the Endesa Women’s League. In fact, the IDK is the team that places the most ‘caps’ per game with an average of 2.9 per match. Faye and ‘Zeta’ score and touch more balls than anyone else. They team up to make the last effort difficult for their rivals and not only block shots. With their mere presence they change shots that apparently tend to be easy for the opponents. Her intimidation causes the opposing player to have doubts when it comes to shooting.
The late Congolese center Dikembte Mutombo used to say that the block was more than a trivial matter. ‘Not in my house’ he used to say to anyone who took a txapela from the African center. A kind of intimidation. Within my zone, you are not going to score an easy basket. Something similar happens to IDK Euskotren, which takes advantage of Khadija Faye’s 1.92m height and good positioning and the jump and wingspan of María Eraunzetamurgil, who is capable of touching balls very close to the rim. The two of them, with the collaboration of the rest, are capable of making the opponent’s attack bitter. Tomorrow (6:00 p.m.) the Joventut players will have extra difficulty in the match if they have Faye and Eraunzetamurgil in front of them.
The emergence of Khadija Faye, for whom this is her first professional experience after her time at the University of Pittsburgh, is being very important in the league. Her averages of 14 points and eight rebounds are decorated with 1.1 blocks on average. She has put up eight in the seven games she has played and shows herself to be a coordinated and brave woman when it comes to blocking.
Coaches are always alert when their players, in this case, try to block shots. Many times there is panic because between the ‘cap’ and the foul there is a thin red line. It is true that Eraunzetamurgil had to leave the last game against Baxi Ferrol with two more blocks but they were finally declared a foul.
The San Sebastian native has an innate instinct to block shots. Many times she is attentive to help, she is undetectable to the ball holder, she approaches to help a teammate and to be able to place a block preventing the shot at the basket. This action is an art in basketball and IDK Euskotren is doing well at it. The defense, the blocks placed, their strength in rebounding and the few points they concede are being the factors that explain why they are co-leaders in the league.
