ZARAGOZA (Spain) - Fenerbahce Opet are one win away from being crowned champions after powering past Spar Girona 76-59 to reach their fourth EuroLeague Women Final in the last five editions.
The Turkish side had too much depth and quality for a Spar Girona side who will never forget their run to the last four and their best ever season in the competition.
Fenerbahce will now wait to see if they will play fierce Istanbul rivals Galatasaray Cagdas Faktoring in the Final, or hosts Casademont Zaragoza.
Turning point
After a stuttering opening 15 minutes, Fenerbahce turned on their offensive tap and found a better flow ahead of half-time.
A 16-5 run gave them a double-digit advantage and they never had cause to look back as they kept Girona at arms' length for the remainder of the contest.
Game heroes
Fenerbahce frontcourt standout Emma Meesseman was a real handful for the Girona defense. The Belgian star piled on the agony with 14 points, 6 assists and 6 boards.
Meanwhile Klara Holm impressed in defeat with 16 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists.
Stats don't lie
As you would expect, most stats are heavily in the favor of Fenerbahce, but the contrast in three-point shooting accuracy between both teams was particularly stark. Then winning side sunk 39 percent, with Girona struggling and shooting only 26 percent after going 7 of 27. To get close to a potential upset, that stat needed to be the other way around.
Girona also turned the ball over 20 times which was a big number - compared to 9 for Fenerbahce.
Bottom line
Fenerbahce took a while to move through the gears, perhaps due to needing to integrate new arrival Breanna Stewart who was handed a starting berth.
Once they ironed out some issues, they looked like champions elect with their quality and depth of rotation. Their strong balance of inside-outside scoring is so tough to live with when they are shooting the ball well.
Whatever happens in Sunday's Third Place Game, Girona can step away from this season bursting with pride after writing a historic chapter. It was no shock they bowed out to Fenerbahce, who exploited the gap in quality. But that should not detract from the new ground that the Spanish side have broke. They needed their shots to drop throughout to keep pace with their rivals, but it wasn't to be as they dried up from the perimeter.
They said
"We knew how important it was and we had a tough loss last season. We learned our lesson the hard way. I am super proud of the staff and my teammates and how we played and fought. We are aware it is not done yet and there are still another 40 minutes left," Sevgi Uzun, Fenerbahace Opet
"My players played a great game. We had to find a solution for our offense and find the right players at the right time. But with our defensive and rotation, we found our game. At the end we made the same numbers as always, with 23 assists and with five players in double digits. This is how we need to win, with team basketball." Miguel Mendez, Fenrbahce Opet
"They are a really good team and they punched us bests,tonight. We turned the ball over way too much. We did all thr right things but we gave them too many easy baskets. I am really proud and we need to bounce back on Sunday," Chloe Bibby, Spar Girona.
"We are here to p;ay all the way through and we are happy and proud. I told them in the locker room - we are going to try and finish with a win We deserve it. A bronze medal for us is something historic. We respect the competiton and we have to play trying our best," Roberto Iniguez, Spar Girona
FIBA