Turks take tough tests in Final Eight

ISTANBUL-Hürriyet Daily News

Galatasaray’s Tina Charles goes for a basket against Rivas during the two teams’ Euroleague Women match. AA Photo

Galatasaray will take on Beretta-Famila Schio in the last group game, while Fenerbahçe plays against Rivas Ecopolis in the last day of the Euroleague Women Final Eight Group stage today.

Galatasaray opened the tournament with a shocking defeat to Rivas, while Fenerbahçe remained unbeaten in this campaign with a win over Schio in two Group A games on March 28.

A highly-awaited derby between Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe would be key in the outcome of the group. The match was scheduled to be played later yesterday.

Winner of the Group A will meet the top-spot holder of the Group B in the Euroleague Women Final at Istanbul’s Abdi İpekçi Arena on April 1.

Tomorrow, Ros Casares Valencia will try to book its place in the final with a win over Wisla. The star-studded Spaniards made a bright start to the tournament with two wins, including a win to solid Spartak Moscow.

Spartak will meet Ekaterinburg in the other game today.

Tournament favorites Ros Casares dug itself out of an early hole to secure a hard fought and vital 77-66 success against Spartak Moscow yesterday.

Having raced into an early double digit lead at 18-8 courtesy of a vibrant opening quarter, Spartak extended its lead early in the second period.

Back to back three-balls by Marina Kuzina and Sonja Petrovic made it 24-13 and had Ros Casares on the back foot.

The Spanish club was giving up far too many offensive rebounds to their smaller opponents and combined with missing too many lay-ups in the post, it was developing into a frustrating day for Coach Iniguez and his players.

However, trailing 39-27 with less than sixty seconds until the interval, the team enjoyed a huge lift for the second half when the Russians also found their range as Lauren Jackson and Laia Palau both converted from outside to cut the gap to just six points.

The game continued to develop into a shootout as firstly the pendulum swung right back to Spartak when Becky Hammon came out and hit a three-pointer before Jackson replied with another couple of triples to reduce the damage to 47-45.

Heading into the last period, Ros still trailed by four points but they turned the game on its head with a scorching 12-0 run.

As hard as they tried, Spartak couldn’t recover fully from the setback. The team narrowed to within two points but Ros completed its comeback and sealed a second win in as many days.