Title Was One Frame Away For Avenida

Perfumerías last play was out of time.

Teams entered the game with aggresive defense and struggling in offense but it was Avenida who struggled the most since they couldn’t get her killer trio Willingham, Lyttle y Torrens going. Lyttle and Willingham struggled in the paint and Torrens did in the perimeter, well stopped by Jana Vesela, with Anke De Mond too anxious.

Le’Coe Willingham hot shooting from the perimeter was ironically what kept the game close for her team she scored 11 of 13 points of Salamanca as Sancho Lyttle’s defense on Erika De Souza who remained scoreless in the first.  

Ros Casares was more fluent in the offense and a three point play from Delisha Milton-Jones and a trey from Belinda Snell made it 12-6 half the first leading to Jordi Fernández’s time out to take action on what was happening on the court.

He put Alexandra Gorbunova and Isa Sánchez in to release the charro game and it was Sánchez who cut the drought of her team after three minutes however her team still depended on the Willingham’s hot hand which was what made her team reach the second trailing 14-13.

In the second Gorbunova and Olga Podkovalnikova who entered the court with 15 seconds to finish the first, after Sancho Lyttle picked up her 2nd foul got Perfumerías going scoring their team’s first six points (4 for the Ukrainian and 2 for the Russian who ended the quarter with 8 and 7 respectively) putting the Salamanca outfit ahead 20-14 after three minutes.

Then was Isma Cantó who called time out to solve his team difficulties. The solution was Anna Montañana. A threepointer from Montañana made it 20-17 after three minutes and started the trade which lead Ros to regain the lead briefly after two  minutes thanks to Erika De Souza’s first two points in the game (25-24) Podkovalnikova would eventually regain the lead for Avenida (26-25), Montañana regained the lead again for Valencia (29-28) scoring her 8th point in the quarter she had 10 in the game- answered immediately by Alba Torrens’ first basket in the game which started a 7-0 run capped by Silvia Domínguez that could have lead Avenida into the interval six ahead, 35-29, had it not been for a buzzer beater from half court from former Bourges player, and eventually MVP of the Copa, Laia Palau which made it 35-32 at the break.  

Things seemed to be in favor of Fernández’s team when Delisha Milton-Jones had to sit out for Ros Casares after picking up her third foul after 15 seconds and Anke de Mondt scoring the 37-32, but it after barely one minute was Sancho Lyttle who had to sit after picking up her third foul also.  

Anyway her sitting was brief since her replacement, Olga Podkovalnikova, received a blow in the head and Jordi Fernández risked putting the Caribbean back on court where she’d meet again with Milton-Jones to continue with their personal duel in the paint, which won the two times Olympic Gold Medal who scored back to back baskets to close the gap for the “Taronjas”, 44-43, after five minutes, finishing the work Erika de Souza and former Bourges player Belinda Snell –this one from the perimeter- to regain the lead for Ros with 3:20 remaining, 48-44, for a 7-0 run.

Alba Torrens returned the trade to the game and the third finished with Ros Casares ahead, 52-50 after two freebies from Isa Sánchez in the late seconds of the quarter.

The last waltz started with the reappearance of Erika De Souza who scored her team’s first six points, however they were answered by back to back baskets from Sancho Lyttle and one from Alexandra Gorbunova which closed the gap for Avenida after four minutes, 57-56.

Tension and struggling in the offense were present in the final quarter for both teams whose aggressive defense lead Salamanca to the bonus since their struggling in defense were higher and the charity stripe starred then but only to make suffer the Valencia outfit.

Le’ Coe Willingham put Salamanca into one point, 61-60, with more than three minutes. Belinda Snell could have given some rest to her team from the line but she split and could only make it 62-60. Nevertheless Avenida didn’t score in the subsequent possession and the next foul put Laia Palau on the line. The MVP of the Copa didn’t score from the line with 2:20 remaining but Salamanca missed the rebound which felt into De Souza’s hand leading to Palau’s redemption after making it 64-60, leading to Fernández’s timeout.  

Silvia Domínguez made it 64-62 after the stop with 1:30 to the end. Ros didn’t score its offense but Salamanca also failed although the offensive rebound from Silvia Domínguez under the rim, gave them another chance with 50 seconds remaining.

They didn’t take advantage from that and the ball was for Valencia with 33 seconds remaining and the chance to ice the game.

The ball fell into Palau’s hands who missed an easy shot under the rim giving Avenida a last breath after Alba Torrens got the board with 10 seconds remaining.

Jordi Fernández called time out after a foul on Binissalem’s shooting guard who after the inbound pass put the ball into Willingham’s hands who make it to put the ball into Sancho’s hand under the rim but the basket was out of time and the title flew for fourth straight year to Valencia, 64-62.

Delisha Milton-Jones had 17 pts and 6 boards for Ros, joined by Belinda Snell’s 13, Laia Palau’s 12 pts, 5 boards and 3 assists and Anna Montañana 10 pts

In Perfumerías Le’Coe Willingham had 18 pts and 6 boards and Olga Podkovalnikova added 10.

Perfumerías Avenida out-rebounded Ros Casares 34-25.

Miquel Bordoy Cano

Foto: (FEB)