The Perfumerías Avenida welcomes Baxi Ferrol today (12:30): leader (18-1) against bottom (4-16). The team from Salamanca arrives in a sweet moment of results (he has already reached 30 wins this season and has nine in a row in the Endesa Women’s League)although with the inside game quite touched. Katie Lou Samuelson He did not return to Salamanca after the national team break alleging personal reasons, although the club expects him to do so in the short term. What’s more, Nogaye Lo and Mariella Fasoula are injured and Shante Evanswho did not count for much in Roberto Íñiguez’s plans, left the team to sign for Galatasaray. A delicate situation just ten days before the start of the quarterfinal playoff against Beretta Famila Schio (Wednesday, March 9, at 8:30 p.m. in Salamanca), the best of three games and with a ticket to the Final Four at stake.
The Avenida played the final of the Euroleague in Istanbul last year. In time of pandemic, the team from Salamanca took advantage of a bubble format to get into the top four and fight for their second European title, ten years after that crown achieved in Yekaterinburg in 2011. This season the Euroleague recovered its usual format, but the numbers invite us to be optimistic. the avenue has achieved its best group stage ever this season, with eleven wins and only three defeats: two against Yekaterinburg, three-time European champion and the great ogre of continental women’s basketball, and one against USK Prague. What’s more, only the Russian team has finished with a better balance (14-0) than the team from Salamanca, which draws with the leader of group B, the Fenerbahçe of the Spanish Víctor Lapeña.
The Avenue has been the third best attack in the entire Euroleague (80.7 points, behind Yekaterinburg and María Conde’s Praga). Those of Íñiguez have shown to have aim, with the second best field goal percentage (47,3%) and in shots of two (53.8%), and with a player who is running for MVP of the season. Kahleah Copper, the best in the Chicago Sky ring last October, is the top scorer in the Euroleague (24.2 points), with 42.9% in triples, and the third in PIR (22.1).
