Defeated in Fontajau by a Girona Spar that has gone from strength to strength and ended up losing to Dynamo Kursk. He still has a chance to qualify for the Euroleague quarter-finals, but will have to do his homework against Gdynia and Landes in the last two group stage matches.
Uni has entered the game in full swing. Those of Laura Antoja, who has made her debut as the first coach to take the place of Alfred Julbe who has been sidelined due to the covid-19, have put the fifth gear from the first minute. The trident formed by the recovered Binta Drammeh, the incombustible Kennedy Burke and the Galician María Araújo, added to a great choral defense, have left the Russians with 9 points in the first quarter (21-9).
Laia Flores is adding gallons as the conductor of the Girona orchestra. Mataronina started the second quarter with a right and left game. Labuckiene has also taken on gallons in the face of Julia Reisingerová’s physical absence, who has barely had time to train with the team after being another victim of the covid-19. On the part of the Russians, Howard (14 points) and Prince (10) have been the mainstays of the team coached by former player Vasily Karasev, who, despite rotating the bench, has not found solutions to slow down Girona’s success ( 40-31 at halftime).
Spar did not start well in the third quarter. Lost balls, lack of concentration and the activation of Arike Ogunbowale have imposed an 8-0 run that has turned the game around (40-39) and forced Antoja to stop the bleeding with a timeout. Qualifying for the quarterfinals of the Euroleague is expensive and the Russians, aware of the situation, have not made things easy. An imperial Natasha Howard (already 27 points in the third quarter) has built a fortress under the Girona siege that Spar has not been able to stop (52-54).
Skin-deep emotions in the last quarter. Spar has played a bit messy and this has given the Russians room to gain mobility, refereeing decisions have gained weight and cut the game further. Three minutes from the end a 57-62 on the scoreboard. A 2 + 1 by Arike Ogunbowale (57-65) made things even more complicated. But Spar did not lower his arms and a recovered ball and a basket from Drammeh put the score at 63-65. Natasha Howard again made an easy basket under the hoop and the Russians extended the distance even further (63-69). Spar failed to order but a triple from Burke less than 10 seconds before the end of the match gave the fans a glimmer of hope (66-69) to believe that a draw was possible 7 seconds before the end. A dubious refereeing decision facilitated the ball to Kursk who on receiving the foul extended the score to an irretrievable 5 points away (66-71). The audience thanked the players who will have to win the next two games to qualify for the quarterfinals.
