Méndez: “From the bench we have had a fundamental push”

Silvia Domínguez: “There has been a lot of contribution from different players”

MADRID, 16 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Spanish women’s basketball coach, Miguel Méndez, assured this Friday that “from the bench” his team had “a fundamental push” to win 78-57 against Montenegro on the second day of the Eurobasket group stage, which is contesting in Israel and Slovenia.

“From the bench we have had a fundamental push, we have not only maintained the level but we have raised it both offensively and defensively. We have maintained a high intensity line that in the end has settled the game because they have had a slump in the last quarter very important,” Méndez said at a press conference.

“We coaches in general don’t like to talk about individualities. But if yesterday it was Laura Gil who had a great game and kept us in the game throughout the day, then today María appeared. Coming off the bench she looked like María Conde last season”, added the Spain coach.

Regarding the forward María Conde, author of 20 points, her coach recalled the bad moments of this course. “He has missed many moments of the year due to shoulder injuries, due to ankle injuries, he has not started concentration at the highest level due to that ankle problem and it has been very difficult for him throughout the year,” she said.

“But I think we have shown her trust, we have tried to push her, try to get her to help the team and she is a very intelligent woman and has known how to be there. When things went wrong, she is one of those who tries the most to be with someone smile on. And very happy for her, that she has broken that curse,” added Méndez.

“I think that the strength of the team is what counted today. When they tactically change the game, we look for solutions on the bench and we find them. And when the coach wants to make the rotation long, we depend on the players maintain the level”, argued about the victory against Montenegro.

Facing the future in this Eurobasket, Méndez stressed that “anything can still happen”. “But I think we have to look inward more than ever, try to play our best basketball and win the game,” he declared regarding the third game of the tight Group A, which will be next Sunday (7:45 p.m.) against Greece.

“And the tournament will lead us… well, wherever we have to go. We would have liked to have won yesterday and be practically classified in first position right now, not cross the round of 16 and go for an easier place. But the tournament takes us around here and we don’t think beyond the next day,” he insisted.

Meanwhile, he admitted that his win against Montenegro “may be a turning point.” We have trusted a lot in the strength of the group, we have looked for both tactical and player solutions and we have not gone crazy. This is the path, it is the Spain that has been since the first day of the concentration and we cannot look back”, he concluded.

SILVIA DOMÍNGUEZ: “THE HAS BEEN A LOT OF CONTRIBUTION FROM DIFFERENT PLAYERS”

On the other hand, the experienced point guard Silvia Domínguez confessed her talk with the youngest of the team. “Before today’s game, I talked to them a bit about looking inside themselves. They are players who are in great teams, some in the Euroleague and the Spanish League, who have been in important games and have a lot of basketball inside them” , he highlighted.

In this sense, Domínguez had told her teammates in the locker room “that it was time to take it out, that it was time to be more together than ever, that we talk more on the track, that we communicate more, that we get together more on moments that were hard and that we take them forward”.

“I think that today has been a good reflection of that because there has been a lot of contribution from different players, even from some who weren’t so good yesterday. [ante Letonia]. That is the strength that we have to bring out, that one day it is one day and another day it is another, and that we have that point of being unpredictable because in the end the strength that we have to have is that of the group”, Domínguez concluded at the press conference .