Team Profile: Perfumerias Avenida
SALAMANCA (EuroLeague Women 2017) – The next destination on our EuroLeague Women 2017 pre-season tour is Salamanca and the home of the Liga Femenina champions, Perfumerias Avenida.
Last season: It was a turbulent campaign which witnessed the club end up with an unwanted 4-10 Regular Season record. But their campaign did pick up from a domestic standpoint and end on a high, when under new head coach Miguel Angel Ortega, they lifted the Spanish Championship.
Roster: All of the early noise during the off-season came from Pabellon Wurzburg as Avenida began the process of completing one of - if not the most exciting recruitment drives in the competition. A string of announcements confirmed the arrival of some terrific EuroLeague Women players and not least, reigning EuroBasket Women 2015 champion and Rio bronze medallist Jelena Milovanovic. The Serbian will give them a big inside-outside scoring lift and the addition of Hungary national team forward Tijana Krivacevic looks like good news too, since she has been very efficient in her past EuroLeague Women outings.
Forward Adaora Elonu has done big things in Spanish basketball and finally gets her chance on the biggest stage, highly rated youth star Angela Salvadores is new in town and so are Rio Olympians Laura Quevedo and Laura Gil, with the latter re-joining having played for Avenida earlier in her career. The addition of Krisi Givens gives the team a do-it-all kind of player who can be an MVP in any game at this level and Erica Wheeler is a guard with WNBA court time to her name. Although despite all of the buzz around the new players, the retention of Romanian forward Gabriela Marginean and playmaker Silvia Dominguez shouldn’t be underestimated, since both are proven EuroLeague Women leaders.
Key player: With so many incomers and some young Spanish rising stars, a smart head on experienced shoulders will mean everything to this team. That is why point guard and three-time EuroLeague Women winner, Silvia Dominguez will be so vital.
Y seguimos! Última semana de trabajo antes de empezar compitiendo en la Euroliga! 💪🏼🔵 pic.twitter.com/2bpWBRwKvW
— Silvia Dominguez (@sdominguez6) October 17, 2016
She will have a big say in making the most of those offensive choices and as well as directing traffic in the backcourt, she will demand that everyone sticks with their defensive assignments.
‘X-Factor’: Rather than one player who might be the ‘X-Factor’, it looks like being a collective question for the Avenida players. With all of their impressive offensive capabilities, can they share the shots around in a smart manner? Meanwhile at the other end of the floor, have they got what it takes defensively to dig out those ugly wins?
Increíble Würzburg hoy! así da gusto ganar 🔷 #vamosAvenida pic.twitter.com/5H4XmJ6lfk
— Ángela Salvadores (@AnSalvadores) October 16, 2016
Stat attack: Avenida lost six of their first seven games in the competition last season.
Social media stars: Go over and check out Jelena Milovanovic [Jelenamilovanovic9] on Instagram or opt for Silvia Dominguez [sdominguez6] on Twitter.
Outlook: You would certainly want a season ticket and be part of the club’s noisy ‘Blue Tide’ fans watching this team play. On paper, it’s been at least five or six years since the club had a roster with this much firepower. It’s going to be riveting to see if Avenida simply ‘run and gun’ to see if their opponents can keep pace; or whether they can show that they possess more rounded players than we give them credit for and can actually play some hard-nosed defence. They have the raw talent to push for that top four and make the post-season once again. After that, who knows and while talk of Final Four might be a little optimistic or premature at this stage, it’s not impossible by any means.
FIBA
