Estudiantes Claims Liga Femenina 2 Title, Beats Soller In the Final

USP-CEU MMT ESTUDIANTES 80 – JOVENTUT MARIANA 75

In the first quarter it wasn’t clear who wanted clearly the title as both teams were slow in a first quarter in which both teams traded baskets. Sóller was a little over Madrid’s outfit in the first minutes of the game, though, but Estudiantes fought back and levelled the score in the last seconds, 16-16.  

The second saw Estudiantes taking over the game, slowly but surely, after a first half of the period trading leads with Sóller up to four times Nacho García’s team made a10-0 run, leaving Sóller scoreless for two minutes and claiming a 24-33 lead and the ‘colegiales’ won’t look back anymore. Estudiantes used its inside players Laura Herrera and Erika Gómez (Who scored 6 and 7 pts respectively) as well as the points (Seven) and the leadership of the MVP of the tournament Sandra Ygueravide to claim and keep the lead, reaching the halftime with a  41-31 lead  

After the break Estudiantes controlled perfectly the game and survived Soller’s attemps to make a comeback. Sandra Ygueravide lead Ramiro de Maeztu’s team and also scored 8 pts in the quarter while her team claimed a 17 point lead, 48-31, in the early stages of the third. Right after claiming that lead Sóller made a 6-0 run to spark their reaction and trimming the lead while trading baskets with Estudiantes to get into seven points, 46-53 after a free throw from Esther Morillo with one minute remaining in the quarter. Sandra Ygueravide scored the trey to make it 56-46 and take double digit lead again, but Gaby Ocete drove to the basket and scored beating the buzzer to make it 56-48 to end the quarter

Estudiantes kept its cool as they continued surviving Soller’s siege and didn’t lose their nerve as Soller’s was closing the gap, mostly thanks to Astou Traoré points (7 in the quarter), not even when the balearic team got into one point, 76-75, after a Gaby Ocete’s threepointer as the shooting clock was running out with 1:36 remaining, as María Vilouta’s hand scored in the ensuing possession, 78-75, with 1:18 remaining. Sóller failed its offense and Estudiantes, although Ygueravide missed the shot but grabbed the loose ball and that turned into a foul on Irene Castrejón who established the final 80-75 from the line with 23 seconds remaining, ensuring thar way the title of Liga Femenina 2 for Estudiantes  

Kristina Palaimaite scored 10 for Sóller, joined by Gaby Ocete’s 11, Nieves Llamas’ 15 and Astou Traoré’s 20 points while in Estudiantes Laura Herrera had 10 pts, Sara Vita 12 and Sandra Ygueravide and María Vilouta 15 apiece, with Charity Egenti adding 9 pts and 8 boards