ESP – Only pain for eliminated Spain

KATOWICE (EuroBasket Women 2011) - There are surprises at every EuroBasket Women, and this year’s edition in Poland has proved no different.

No one expected Montenegro, playing in the event for the first time, to go unbeaten in their first six games and turn into a contender for the gold medal.

And no one believed Croatia would on Sunday night beat Spain 75-71 and send La Roja crashing out of the tournament before the Quarter-Finals.

That result is a bombshell.

Gone is Spain, a team that has captured a medal at every EuroBasket Women since 2001.

Spain, fifth in the FIBA World Rankings for Women, were supposed to be on the up.

Last year, they captured the bronze in Karlovy Vary, the first medal for the Spanish at a FIBA World Championship for Women.

Spain had come back from a double-digit deficit to stun Poland at the EuroBasket Women 2003 in Patras, Greece, and reach the Athens Olympics.

After almost upsetting Russia to win the gold in 2007 in Chieti, Italy, they hosted the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Women and claimed one of the spots on offer for the Beijing Games.

Before travelling to Katowice, Spain were among the favorites to win the gold.

Now, their knockout by Russia means Spain won’t even have a chance to go to the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament and have an opportunity to go to London next year.

Instead it’s Croatia, a team that got 24 points from captain Sandra Mandir and hit nine three-pointers compared to just two for Spain.

One of those three-balls for Spain came in the last seconds when the game had long since been decided.

The implications are far reaching because while no announcement has been made, it seems a generational change is now inevitable for Spain.

National team captain Amaya Valdemoro, 34, the most famous player ever to wear the Spain shirt in women’s basketball and the MVP of the 2007 EuroBasket Women, has probably played her last game for her country.

A calf injury limited her to just one appearance in Group C in Katowice.

Elisa Aguilar, 34, may have played her last game, too.

There will also be questions about the national team futures of both Laia Palau, who is 31, and 30-year-old Ana Montanana.

The cruelty for Palau is that she could not have played any harder, nor any better than on Sunday when she and reserve center Lucila Pascua carried Spain on their backs for most of the contest against Croatia.

Palau had 19 points and a game-high four steals.

Her defensive effort was hands down the best by any player at the EuroBasket Women in Katowice.

Pascua had 17 points and eight rebounds.

How far did she come in this tournament?

Pascua played just five minutes in the win over Germany and did not even feature against Montenegro.

She played with so much heart and determination that Spain should consider making the 28-year-old a captain.

If that was the good news, this is the bad.

Alba Torrens, the EuroLeague Women Final Four MVP this year with Halcon Avenida who has signed a big contract with Galatasaray, went from early contender for tournament MVP to EuroBasket Women 2011 bust.

Torrens missed all 13 of her shots from the field on Sunday and finished with just two points.

Spain will now have a post-mortem and see they made mistakes even before the EuroBasket Women.

The agreement with naturalized power forward/center Sancho Lyttle, a member of the all-tournament team last year in the Czech Republic, allowed her to join the national team the day before EuroBasket Women started.

Unlike like last year when she made an immediate impact, Lyttle looked tired and a mere shadow of her normal self.

On Sunday, the center’s left leg was taped from the bottom to just below the knee.

The inspirational Valdemoro, so often injured in recent times, played just the one game in Katowice.

She missed games during the warm-up period but nevertheless accompanied the team to Poland.

Everything conspired against Jose Ignacio Hernandez, the coach.

Marta Xargay was developing into one of his most solid players in the squad but after a blow to the nose against Montenegro which forced her to wear a facemask, the 20-year-old guard sprained an ankle against Latvia and didn’t play against Croatia.

Spain lacked the intensity and passion that has always been with the national side in international competition.

Hernandez, who coaches in Poland at Wisla Can-Pack Krakow, was shell shocked.

“This defeat is a bitter blow for my team,” he said.

“We had a good preparation to the tournament but injuries to Amaya Valdemoro and Marta Xargay as well as Sancho Lyttle also having problems, hindered us.

“It is very hard to win a game when several of our players struggle shooting and that was the case with Alba Torrens today.”

Last summer was the disappointment of the men’s team and their sixth-place finish at the FIBA World Championship, and now the women have come up short.

This is a national squad that will now have to go through qualifying just to reach the EuroBasket Women.

Jeff Taylor
FIBA