Lhe Spanish women’s basketball team closed its participation in the qualifying windows for the next Eurobasket with another exhibition against Iceland (34-88) and full of victories by achieving its sixth win in Reykjavik in a game with little at stake since the Spanish They had their ticket insured and the locals arrived at the appointment without options.
Datasheet
- 34 – Iceland (10+10+6+8): Hinriksdottir (6), Jonsdottir (5), Kristjansdottir (-), Sigurdardottir (-) and Anna Svansdottir (2) -cinco inicial-, Alexandersdottir (2), Hjordisardottir ( -), Grimsdottir (2), Karlsdottir (1), Aegisdottir (-), Larusdottir (14) Y Svansdottir (2).
- 88 – Spain (18+28+24+18): Ouviña (7), Araujo (10), Gil (5), Vilaró (10) and Ortiz (11) -main quintet-, Ginzo (13), Quevedo (4) ), Salvadores (3), Flores (6), Erauncetamurguil (9), Canella (2) and Ygueravide (8).
- Referees: Jelena Tomic (CRO), Indrè Balnionytè-Geceviciene (LAT) and Sara Mansson (SWE). Sin is eliminated.
- Incidents: Eurobasket 2023 qualifying group C match played at Laugardalshöll in Reykjavík. A minute of silence was observed in memory of the victims of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.
From the start, the players coached by Miguel Méndez took command of the match with authority, with great anticipation defense that allowed them to recover balls, their dominance in rebounding and speed in attack, which allowed them to take the first advantages in marker. Mariona Ortiz’s points and María Araujo’s rebounds kept the visitors up.
As the minutes went by, the Icelanders got into the game with some isolated actions, which allowed them to reach the end of the first ten minutes with a deficit of only eight points (10-18, min 10), a gap Assumable for them due to the difference between the two teams, as was demonstrated in the first round match, in which Spain endorsed them in November with a resounding 120-54.
Miguel Méndez asked his players for “more head and fewer legs” before he started in the second act and his instructions were heeded, which resulted in a 1-12 partial start in four minutes that began to break the clash and forced Benedikt Gudmundsson, the Icelandic coach, to stop the game to stop the Spanish escape (11-30, min 14).
Adding insult to injury, Eva Kristjansdottir had to withdraw with a knee injury and her teammates continued to rack up losses against the rocky home defence. In addition, the foreign success of Spain, with five three-pointers out of nine attempts in the first half, and its dominance in rebounding (14-26), allowed it to reach the break without any surprises and with the game on track (20-46, min 20 ).
Spain continued to do its thing after the restart, aware that the event was a good test bench for its participation next summer in the Eurobasket in Israel and Slovenia. The difference continued to grow until Paula Ginzo, very successful in attack, raised the gap to 30 points for the first time with a mid-range basket (26-56) and shortly after it was Cristiana Ouviña who put the 40-point margin with a triple .
The Spanish did not lower their pressure behind, which prevented the hosts from scoring. With only six points scored in a third quarter of a clear visiting color (6-24), the Icelanders went into the last ten minutes trailing 26-70, reflecting the distance between the two teams.
The last quarter had little history. Spain continued stealing balls and blocking all access routes to their hoop and trying to speed up their attacks. The Icelanders were still stuck at 26 points -they went eleven minutes without seeing a hoop and ended up with 28 losses- and the game continued in the same vein until the final 34-88 with which the Spanish team closed its participation in the qualifying windows undefeated and he only thinks about doing a good job in the Eurobasket.
