Raquel Carrera’s terrible injury left Valencia Basket depressed in its debut in the Copa de la Reina. But in the semifinals everything changed and the team jumped for the jugular of Movistar Estudiantes, who arrived happy and smiling after winning a match in this competition for the first time, and which collided head-on against an unleashed team, a hurricane on the parquet of the Carolina Marin. Rubén Burgos’ team received a basket on the first play of the game and did not concede another in the next eight and a half minutes. The ‘taronja’ defense was superb: with clairvoyance in reading the passing lines, putting in many hands and not conceding free shots. Estudiantes were drowning in a first quarter without three-pointers and 13% in field goals. While the Valencians closed this stretch with a 6/8 in three-point shots. A devastating imbalance that allowed us to go from the initial 0-2 to a 24-2 that practically sealed the first semi-final of the Cup.
Leti Romero, starter due to Cristina Ouviña’s physical and playing problems, took advantage, this time, of her opportunity and launched her team to feast on points. But the difference, despite the striking success of Valencia Basket’s outside shooting, was in their zone, where Queralt grabbed rebounds like a center and where the two true centers, Merritt Hempe and Nadia Fingall, were very imprecise and without fit in the first stretch of the season, they showed that they have taken a step forward and that they could nullify the towers of the rival team.
And then there is Alina Iagupova, one of the most unbalanced players in Europe, who makes and breaks on both sides of the field taking advantage of a much superior physique. The only problem for the Ukrainian forward is that she is very hungry for MVP and abused the shot (16 shots at the basket in 21 minutes).
Rubén Burgos took advantage of this advantageous situation to distribute the efforts as he pleased. This allowed him to allow 25 minutes on the court between María Erauncetamurgil – recovered by Valencia Basket precisely from Estudiantes in the middle of the season – and Awa Fam, the 17-year-old girl who is 1.92 meters tall. But as soon as he saw a hint of a comeback from Estudiantes, like when the Madrid team got within 13 points (28-15), he rescued Romero and Iagupova, who, as soon as they returned to the court, scored a triple each and nipped it in the bud. the attempted rebellion of his rivals.
The Valencian coach tried to maintain the motivation of his team so that the tension did not drop, mainly defensively, from where he kept at bay a Estudiantes team that finished below 30% accuracy in shots from two. One of Burgos’s obsessions was that his team did not give up the rebounding duel, one of the college team’s strengths, and at the end of the 40 minutes they captured the same rebounds (33 each).
In the second half, the good momentum, and the confidence they have gained, of Hempe and Fingall, who were looked at closely during the first months, was strengthened. The two more than delivered and demonstrated, ahead of the German Marie Gülich, that they have earned the right to take the responsibility of trying to compensate with their play for Carrera’s absence.
Valencia Basket enters its second final of the Queen’s Cup. It is the only title missing in Spain after having won the League and the Super Cup. In 2021, at Fonteta, they lost the final against Spar Girona and this Sunday (12.30, Teledeporte) they will try to complete the collection of national titles.
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