The sixth regular season game of Spanish League play ended yesterday, and with the season nearly 1/4 over the sheep are beginning to separate themselves from the goats. The usual suspects are at the top of the Liga Femenina, joined by a previously absent friend.

(* * *)

The big news, however, is that Taj McWilliams has left Ros Casares. The only reason she had been signed was as a replacement for Nicky Anosike. Anosike returned to professional play for the first time in months, taking part in Ros Casares's win over Olesa on Saturday and two days before Anosike's return, McWilliams reached an agreement with the club to depart. Anosike was "suspended" by the Lynx after not traveling with Minnesota for their final three road games of the 2010 WNBA season, a suspension de jure that allowed Anosike to have surgery on a torn lateral meniscus in her left knee.

The top two teams in the league are the teams that everyone expected - Ros Casares and Perfumerias. Both of those teams are undefeated. Joining them in the quest for supremacy is Rivas Ecopolis in third place despite an upset loss to....

...well, not to Zaragoza, the team everyone expected to be in fourth place by this time. The fourth place team in the LFB is Extrugasa, which is back in the league after being relegated during the previous season. Don't expect Extrugasa to stay in fourth place for too long - they've played El Ros and Rivas who have together won 11 of 12 but the other teams Extragusa have played are 6-18 combined. Next week, Zaragoza will play Extrugasa and we'll find out which team is for real.

Friday, October 29

Vigo 71, Joventut 59

What a horrible first quarter for Joventut, which fell behind 22-5 after the first ten minutes. After that, Vigo could just play visiting Joventut basket-for-basket and win easily, which they more or less did. Joventut's 21 turnovers didn't help, and neither did the five players who were held scoreless despite taking up a quarter of the minutes played.

Shay Murphy, the league's leading scorer, was Joventut's only decent player.

Vigo: Sliskovic 19/ reb, Michulkova 14, Jordana 12/6 ast, Stakneviciene 9/9 reb/4 stl.
Joventut: Murphy 21/7 reb, Ferrary 15, Comfort 13/8 reb/6 TO, Vega 8/6 TO.

Saturday, October 30

Girona 61, Navarra 53

This was a low scoring game, where neither team shot more than 35 percent. Navarra looked good starting the game, taking a 22-14 lead in the first quarter but they just ran out of steam. Depending too much on Kaayla Chones, a fatigued Chones only played three minutes of the third quarter and Navarra went on a 10-0 run. Girona's lead was by less than ten points in the fourth quarter, but might as well have been fifty.

Girona: Chones 19/6 reb, Cinite 11/6 reb, Palomares 11.
Navarra: Kelly 13, Antoja 11, Warburton 9, Guneva 8/8 reb.

Extrugasa 59, Hondarribia 43

Extrugasa outscored visiting Hondarribia 16-7 in the first quarter and led 30-8 with four minutes left and outscored them 15-6 in the final one. With four minutes left in the first half, Extrugasa already had a 30-8 lead. Hondarribia was held to just 31 percent shooting and turned the ball over an astonishing 27 times. "We did not play at all. There was no collective sense and we practically did not enter the game until the third quarter," said Hondarribia coach Pepelu Mujika.

Extrugasa: Adams 17/6 reb, Vynuchalova 8, Garcia 7, Gilaber 7, Stevenson 6/11 reb.
Hondarribia: Bavendam 10/9 reb, Burgin 10/5 reb, Dapo 9, Lacy 4/4 TO.

Ibiza 79, Cadi la Seu 46

Ibiza won every quarter of this game and shot 54 percent to visiting Cadi la Seu's 34 percent. The game started with a 10-10 tie but with two minutes left in the first half Ibiza already had a 35-19 lead. Ibiza's defense finally came back to life after the horrible whipping by Ros Casares the previous week.

Ibiza: Morales 21/6 reb/6 ast, Pirsic 20/9 reb, Smith 13/8 reb, Thorburn 9/8 reb/7 ast.
Cadi la Seu: Traore 15/5 reb, Nascimento 11, Castillo 8.

Rivas Ecopolis 95, Gran Canaria 61

In the Grand Canary Islands, Gran Canaria managed to stay competitive, down 44-34 at halftime, but were routed 28-10 in the third quarter. Rivas Ecopolis hit 53 percent of their shots in a big game for Amaya Valdemoro, who scored 22 points for Rivas.

Gran Canaria: Michael 14/6 reb, Arguello 13, Staalvant 10, Ress 9/11 reb.
Rivas Ecopolis: Valdemoro 22, Liljestrand 14, Bonner 13, Cruz 12, Paris 11/9 reb.

Ros Casares 88, Olesa 50

Ros Casares won the first quarter by 10 points and went on a 22-0 run in the third quarter for an easy road win. Chloe Kerr was held scoreless in 30 minutes of play, with El Ros's Rebekkah Brunson scoring a double-double of 23 points and 12 rebounds. Nicky Anosike played for 15 minutes in her first professional game since her injury, scoring seven points.

The win gave Brunson the Liga Femenina's MVP award for the week.

Olesa: Podkovalikova 11/11 reb, Traore 10, Denti 8.
Ros Casares: Brunson 23/12 reb, Douglas 10, Vesela 9, Frohlich 9/6 reb, Lawson 8, Anosike 7.

Perfumerias 75, Zaragoza 63

In the biggest match of the day, Perfumerias maintains its perfect record by completely shutting down Zaragoza in the fourth quarter on the road. In a close game where Perfumerias led 37-35 at halftime, Zaragoza made up the difference in the third with the help of Allison Feaster's perimeter shooting - she was 4-for-9 for the game - to lead 61-57 going into the final ten minutes. With the game tied at 61-61 with six minutes left, Perfumerias went on a 10-0 run thanks to the interior play of Sancho Lyttle and Erika de Souza. Perfumerias's adjusted 3-2 zone defense killed Zaragoza, who were held to just four points in the final quarter as Perfumerias won by double digits and ended up outshooting Zaragoza 55 percent to 39 percent on the night.

Zaragoza: Zlatlanova 21/5 reb, Feaster 14/6 reb, Henry 8, Brown 6, Pascua 4/7 reb.
Perfumerias: Lyttle 19/9 reb, Torrens 14, Snell 10, Xargay 7, de Souza 6/5 reb.

Standings

Ros Casares 6-0
Perfumerias 6-0
Rivas Ecopolis 5-1
Extrugasa 4-2
Girona 3-3
Gran Canaria 3-3
Ibiza 3-3
Vigo 3-3
Zaragoza 3-3
Olesa 2-4
Cadi la Seu 1-5
Hondarribia 1-5
Joventut 1-5
Navarra 1-5

Tuesday

Euroleague Group D: Ros Casares (1-0) vs. Bourges (1-0)

Wednesday

Euroleague Group B: MKB Euroleasing (1-0) vs. Rivas Ecopolis (0-1)
Euroleague Group C: Perfumerias (1-0) vs. VICI Aistes (1-0)

Thursday

Eurocup Group J: Energa Torun (1-0) vs. Zaragoza (0-1)
Eurocup Group L: Szeviep (0-1) vs. Gran Canaria (0-0)

Saturday

Perfumerias (6-0) vs. Girona (3-3)
Ros Casares (6-0) vs. Navarra (1-5)
Cadi la Seu (1-5) vs. Olesa (2-4)
Rivas Ecopolis (5-1) vs. Ibiza (3-3)
Joventut (1-5) vs. Gran Canaria (3-3)
Zaragoza (3-3) vs. Extrugasa (4-2)

Points per game

Shay Murphy, Joventut, 20.7
Nicole Michael, Gran Canaria, 18.5
DeWanna Bonner, Rivas Ecopolis, 16.8
Aya Traore, Olesa, 14.7
Gisela Vega, Joventut, 14.7

Rebounds per game

Courtney Paris, Rivas Ecopolis, 11.7
Rebekkah Brunson, Ros Casares, 9.8
Kathrin Ress, Gran Canaria, 9.2
Olga Podkovalnikova, Olesa, 9.2
Egle Stakneviciene, Vigo, 9.0

Assists per game

Anna Montanana, Perfumerias, 4.3
Shona Thorburn, Ibiza, 3.7
Noemi Jordana, Vigo, 3.5
Morgan Warburton, Girona, 3.2
Clara Bermejo, Rivas Ecopolis, 3.2

(***)

And for those with a week's worth of vacation, some YouTube links.

From Game Six

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g4Dgx50NNg [Rivas Ecopolis vs. Gran Canaria]

From Game Five

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW7Eygb4q-A [Hondarribia vs. Zaragoza]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcRxqty_VWI [Cadi la Seu vs. Gran Canaria]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg8KLYZtkUU[Olsea vs. Girona]

From Game Four

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y6-D81c08w [Gran Canaria vs. Ros Casares]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuBYxHurrCA [Hondarribia vs. Perfumerias]

View Original Post at swishappeal.com

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