Friday - October 8, 2010

The season of the Liga Femenina de Baloncesto (LFB) - the Spanish professional women's league - opened on Friday with the Supercopa ("Super Cup"), which served as an inaguration.

My goal is to keep up with the regular season and Euroleague play of Spanish League teams. We'll be making many experiments with the overall format over the course of the season. Each game has a link to the Spanish League website where you can read the box score, but for those who just want the highlights, a summary is listed at the bottom of each game with player last names and details. If there's a name you recognize, you might want to click the link!

Friday - October 8, 2010

On Friday, the two best teams from last year participated in the Supercopa event. This game doesn't count in the regular season standings, but it did have something at stake, as Ros Casares had won the last six Supercopas. Their opponent: Perfumerias, which had finished second in the regular season last year. It might be the beginning of a different era in Spanish pro ball, as Perfumerias stripped the cup from Ros Casares, beating El Ros 76-72 on their home ground in Valencia.

It was a tight game all the way up to the fourth quarter. With Ros Casares leading 53-51 at the end of thirty minutes, Perfumerias rolled off seven straight points, and ended up blowing up the lead to ten points at one points (67-57). Perfumerias's defense simply locked down Ros Casares, and the previous Supercopa champs never recovered. Eight players showed up at Ros Casares for the first time this week, and even without much practice time they still managed to close within four points.

Perfumerias's Sancho Lyttle, coming off a bronze medal playing for the Spanish team in the FIBA World Cup, said, "This summer has been amazing, I was lucky because I had no injuries and I have enjoyed playing basketball. Hopefully my body is well and will allow me to continue playing at this level." (Quote is translated.) Lyttle was given the Supercopa MVP award.

Ros Casares: Douglas 15, Brunson 12/10 reb, Fernandez 10, Lawson 9, Palau 8/4 reb/5 ast, McWilliams 6, Frohlich 6.
Perfumerias: Lyttle 17/9 reb, de Souza 14/6 reb, Montanana 12, Snell 10/5 TO, Xargay 8.

Saturday - October 9, 2010

Real Celta Vigo 69, Navarra 53


Real Celta Vigo went up 6-0 to start but Kaayla Chones fueled a 10-2 run to help Navarra go up at the end of the first quarter. Navarra was held to six points in the third quarter, which lost them the game. A 3-pointer by Paula Palomares got Navarra to within six points (59-53) with four minutes left but Real Celta Vigo finished with a 10-0 run.

Real Celta Vigo: Jordana 20, Stakneviciene 20/7 reb/4 stl, Sliskovic 14/9 reb.
Navarra: Chones 11, Garcia 10, Palomares 9, Cinite 8/6 reb. (Palomares was 3-for-11, and 3-for-8 from 3-point range.)

Sunday - October 10, 2010

Perfumerias 51, Ibiza 36

Ibiza barely crawled across the finish line, in a low scoring game where Ibiza didn't break the double digit mark in three out of four quarters, held to just six points in the second quarter with Perfumerias leading 30-15 at the half. Ibiza shot a grand total of 29 percent from the field and turned the ball over 20 times, playing only seven players to Perfumerias's eleven. Shona Thorburn turned the ball over seven times in 38 minutes of play.

Perfumerias: Lyttle 10, de Souza 8/9 reb, Snell 8/5 stl, Torrens 6, Sanchez 6
Ibiza: Morales 14, Peteva 6, Thorburn 1/7 reb/7 TO.

Olesa 88, Gran Canaria 86 (OT)

Home field advantage must count for a lot, as Olesa squeaked out their first Spanish league win this year in overtime. With the score 75-73 and Laura Navarro of Olesa at the free throw line with 18 seconds left and two shots, she could have put the game away, but only hit one free throw. Rosi Sanchez of Gran Canaria hit the buzzer-beating 3-pointer to send the game over. Patricia Arguello could have sent the game into double overtime with the last shot for Gran Canaria, but the shot didn't go in, saving the win for Olesa.

Nicole Michael, formerly of Syracuse University, had 24 points and 16 rebounds for Gran Canaria. Gran Canaria had 60 total team rebounds.

Olesa: Traore 25, Kerr 16/11 reb, Gdany 14, Navarro 13/5 ast, Podkovanikova 7/9 reb.
Gran Canaria: Michael 24/16 reb, Ndour 11/6 reb, Ress 11/10 reb, Sanchez 11/7 reb.

Extrugasa 63, Girona 57


According to the LFB website, this game was decided in the final minute by visiting Extrugasa, and was a welcome-back of sorts for Extrugasa, back in the LFB after a year in the lower division. The visitors got the victory despite turning the ball over 24 times.

Girona: Antoja 15, Wharburton 14/6 ast/4 stl, Borges 12/5 reb.
Extrugasa: Blanes 12/7 reb/6 TO, Vynuchalova 11/8 reb/4 TO, Sousa 10, Stevenson 8/7 reb.

Ros Casares 64, Zaragoza 45

The LFB is treating this game as the marquee game of the day, with 1900 showing up at Valencia to cheer on El Ros. Rebekkah Brunson of Ros Casares scored six baskets (12 points?) in her first nine minutes of play and with the Ros Casares defense, only offensive rebounding kept Zaragoza in the game. The home team broke out a double-digit lead in the second quarter and was never threatened.

Jordi Fernández, the new coach of Ros Casares, says "we still lack coordination". It was a tough day for free throw shooters: Ros Casares shot 62 percent and Zaragoza only hit 54 percent of their tries. Zaragoza's 25 turnovers didn't help, either.

Ros Casares: Brunson: 13/10 reb, Fernandez 9, Martinez 8, Douglas 8.
Zaragoza: Feaster 12/7 TO, Brown 9, Zlatanova 7, Henry 4/13 reb/4 ast.

Cadi la Seu 85, Hondarribia 69

Caid la Seu jumped off to a 32-16 lead by the 12 minute mark, and that was it. Hondarribia was pretty much outclassed, with Cadi la Seu hitting 54 percent of their shots compared to Hondarribia's 42 percent.

Cadi la Seu: Nascimento 16/7 reb, Traore 14/5 reb, Castillo 11, Perez 9.
Hondarribia: Ferragut 15, Revuelto 13/5 reb/4 TO, Burgin 11/5 reb.

Rivas Ecopolis 96, Joventut 70

A close game at the break (39-35 Rivas) but the home club blew it open in the second half, outscoring visiting Joventut 60-35. Dewanna Bonner and Courtney Paris had huge games for Rivas Ecopolis.

Rivas Ecopolis: Bonner 21/7 reb, Valdemoro 19, Paris 14/13 reb, Gimeno 12, Cruz 12.
Joventut: Murphy 15, Vega 15/5 reb, Comfort 12/6 reb/4 TO.

Standings

Cadi la Seu 1-0
Extrugasa 1-0
Olesa 1-0
Perfumerias 1-0
Vigo 1-0
Rivas Ecopolis 1-0
Ros Casares 1-0
Ibiza 0-1
Girona 0-1
Gran Canaria 0-1
Hondarribia 0-1
Zaragoza 0-1
Joventut 0-1
Navarra 0-1

On Wednesday:

Joventut (0-1) vs. Perfumerias (1-0)
Hondarribia (0-1) vs. Rivas Ecopolis (1-0)
Zaragoza (0-1) vs. Cadi la Seu (1-0)
Extrugasa (1-0) vs. Ros Casares (1-0)
Vigo (1-0) vs. Girona (0-1)
Gran Canaria (0-1) vs. Navarra (0-10)
Ibiza (0-1) vs. Olesa (1-0)

View Original Post at swishappeal.com

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