Bad image (67-63) of the team coached by Miguel Méndez, jeopardizing their future in Group A
MADRID, 15 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish women’s basketball team began this Thursday with a tight 67-63 defeat against Latvia its journey in the Eurobasket, which is being played in Israel and Slovenia, showing a bad image and mortgaging its place in Group A and with it their future in competition.
At the Menora Mivtachim Arena in Tel Aviv, the team coached by Miguel Méndez faced a cheating duel. Although the coach himself and his players had warned of the difficulty of this debut in the previous days, few imagined the level of Spanish error against an opponent who knew how to temporize well.
Despite the 0-4 start and the 6-15 lead midway through the first period, the very bad statistics on two-point shots began to weigh down Spain. Not surprisingly, Méndez’s men barely hit a third of their shots, keeping up with those figures against a Latvia that gradually got into the ‘pomade’.
By the start of the second quarter, the Baltic team had already rallied the score (17-15) with an outstanding performance by center Anete Steinberga. Aleksa Gulbe’s aim for the hoop, and especially that of Kitija Laksa, served the team trained by Gundars Vetra to despair Spain.
Almost nothing came out, the defense was weak and on top of that names of importance in the middle distance, such as Silvia Domínguez, Cristina Ouviña and Leonor Rodríguez, contributed little loot in attack. Only Alba Torrens gave the type, pulling the car of a team that went into the break losing by nine points (37-28).
The dynamics did not change when they returned from the locker room, with the Baltics opening even more of the gap (44-30) while their coach squeezed the starting five. Power forward Aija Jurjane did take over from the bench, but Vetra’s plans consisted of having his best assets spend a lot of minutes on the field.
UNPRIZED BENCH DEPTH
Showing much more depth on the bench, Spain timidly lowered the income of its rival at the end of minute 30 (55-47). Laura Gil’s scoring awakening in the ‘paint’ had been fundamental, as were the actions of Raquel Carrera in the launches of two of hers.
With faith and skill, although in fits and starts, the rojigualda team got only three points away (64-61). There was barely a minute left before the conclusion and the ball in attack reached Leo Rodríguez, who missed a vital three-pointer. In the play immediately after, Laksa did score a basket of three and undermined Spanish morale.
Thus, the ghosts of the debut in the Eurobasket of 2021 were revived, where a defeat against Belarus (53-51) jeopardized the Spanish qualification to the next phase. Despite saving the furniture, Spain was then condemned to a more difficult match, which ended with the worst news when they were eliminated in the quarterfinals.
And this time against Latvia, the last bars refreshed those bad memories. Vetra’s pupils, without getting nervous, sealed the victory definitively after another triple missed by Leo Rodríguez. To make up for it, Spain’s next appointment in this tournament will be against Montenegro this Friday (8:45 p.m.).
DATASHEET.
–RESULT: LATVIA, 67 – SPAIN, 63. (37-28, at halftime).
–EQUIPMENT:
LATVIA: Vilka (4), Laksa (17), Gulbe (14), Jakobsone (-) y Steinberga (22) –quinteto inicial–; Strautmane (2), Jurjane (4) and Pulvere (4).
ESPAÑA: Casas (4), Cazorla (3), Torrens (13), Carrera (15) and Gil (20) –initial quintet–; Quevedo (-), Conde (-), Leo Rodríguez (3), Ginzo (-), Domínguez (2) and Ouviña (3).
— PARTIALS: 17-15, 20-13, 18-19 and 12-16.
–REFEREE: Györgyi (RUM), Kukelcik (ESQ) and Prpa (SRB). Without deleted.
–HALL: Menora Mivtachim Arena (Tel Aviv, Israel).