EuroCup Women Week 6: Social media spotlight and reaction
MUNICH (EuroCup Women) - We check in with some of those involved in the last week of the EuroCup Women Regular Season and see how it played out on social media.
MUNICH (EuroCup Women) - We check in with some of those involved in the last week of the EuroCup Women Regular Season and see how it played out on social media.
There was a mixture of jubilation and despair as the last tickets for the next phase were both taken and dropped.
PEAC-Pecs had to win a derby game against PINKK-Pesci 424 to cement their safe passage. A big crowd turned up to see their 71-48 triumph which left Jessica Kuster excited by their progress.
"We were focused and motivated because of our desire to qualify for this next round," she stated.
"We showed we were the better team," added the forward as they booked a match-up with Galatasaray.
There was agony for Castors Braine as they won 69-68 at Rutronik Stars Keltern, but still had their hopes go up in smoke, since it wasn't by the margin they required.
"Normally we would have won this game," bemoaned WNBA draftee and Belgian national team guard, Julie Allemand.
"We were up by nine points with two minutes left on the clock and then we made stupid fouls and put Keltern on the free-throw line.
"We couldn't manage to keep the lead and through the whole game, we played bad 1-on-1 defence."
As for the German rookies, they are loving their somewhat surprise success having had to come through the Qualifiers. Now they will play top seed Yakin Dogu Universitesi in the next phase.
It has been an historic first campaign for another newcomer in Lithuanian champions, Hoptrans-Sirenos. They manged to get their first-ever victory in the tournament but finished on a low note with a big 78-59 defeat at Sparta&K M.R. Vidnoje.
"A combination of a tiresome trip, many injuries and bad shooting contributed to this loss," said head coach, Linas Salkus at the end of a tough first campaign.
"This team has gained many experiences by playing in EuroCup Women and surely we are leaving with our heads up.
"Hopefully our injured players will recover soon and we will now have the task of concentrating on the remainder of the Lithuanian Championship," he added.
As for Sparta&K, they left the competiton and that meant for the first time in memory, there are no Russian clubs competing in the last 16. Although Sparta&k did kindly leave us with some Christmas wishes ringing in our ears.
Some teams advance to the last 16 with an unblemished record. Yakin Dogu Universitesi were one of them as they underlined their status as a major frontrunner with a commanding 93-46 triumph against Aluinvent Miskolc.
There was no easing off the gas for the ambitious side, with Turkey national team guard Olcay Cakir Turgut declaring, "It was an important team win in order to stay undefeated.
"We were really focused as a team and we need to stay like this in every game."
EuroCup Women will resume on 19 January 2017.
FIBA